Intracerebral implantation of human neural stem cells and motor recovery after stroke: multicentre prospective single-arm study (PISCES-2)

What is it about?

We investigated the injection of human stem cells directly into the brain in people who had significant arm weakness between 2 and 13 months after a stroke. The study involved 23 people at 8 hospitals in the UK. One person showed improved arm function by the minimum level that had been specified 3 months after the injection. Three people showed this level of improvement at 6 and 12 months. No side effects related to the cells were seen up to 12 months after injection. Improvements in arm function were seen only in people who had some remaining movement in their arm before the injections: those with no movement of any kind did not improve. The study showed feasibility of performing a clinical trial across multiple hospital sites and suggests that further trials should iam to involve people with some remaining arm movement.

Featured Image