New stem cell therapy targets muscular dystrophy

In what's being described as a breakthrough research project, stem cells were used to treat the symptoms of muscular dystrophy in dogs. Giulio Cossu, director of the stem cell institute at the San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan, Italy, led the international team of researchers, whose work was published in the online edition of Nature. Taking stem cells from the blood vessel walls of the dogs--an approach similar to using adult stem cells--the researchers repeatedly injected them into the blood stream of dogs suffering from an ailment very similar to Duchenne muscular dystrophy, which afflicts one in every 3,500 newly born male children. Cossu says that his research indicates that genetically manipulating an individual's own stem cells may be the best approach to finding a way to use stem cells as a cure.

- read the AP report on the research project

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