The
Chicago Tribune reports on how adult stem cells could help prevent many amputations. Excerpts:
A new procedure launched at the
Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago in January offers hope to patients
with critical limb ischemia (CLI), or severely blocked leg arteries.
Doctors transplanted a purified form of the
patients' own stem cells into their leg muscles to grow new, small blood
vessels and restore circulation in their legs. Two patients underwent the
procedure. They are the first subjects in a 20-site national trial.
…
Losordo said a treatment for CLI could be
available by 2012.