Operating RoomTOKYO, Jan 14Japanese Keio University specialists performed the world's first operation to treat a spinal injury using induced iPS stem cells. According to a university press release, clinical trials started in December last year. As part of the trial, specialists will transplant nerve cells grown from iPS cells to four patients. The first such operation was performed at a university hospital. Age, gender and nature of the injury were not specified. In the course of it, 2 million nerve cells were transplanted to a person. The patient is currently undergoing rehabilitation at the Murayama Medical Center in Tokyo. As Professor Hideyuki Okano noted during a press conference, the condition of the person who underwent the operation is «extremely good.» Over the next three months, specialists intend to collect data on the patient's or patient's health, after which they will be submitted for examination by independent experts.The fight against cancer and COVID-19: scientists are betting on stem cellsIn the event that the procedure is considered safe, the operation of the second of four patients may take place after April. a cell from a normal human skin cell. The cells are called induced pluripotent (artificial multifunctional) stem cells-iPS. In 2012, Yamanaka was awarded the Nobel Prize. The discovery sparked an explosion of research in regenerative medicine. Scientists have learned how to grow cells of the heart muscle, intestines, pancreas, retina, blood, skin, nerve cells, egg, sperm cells and kidney nephrons from them. The world's first operation using artificial multifunctional iPS cells was carried out in Japan in 2014. Skin cells were taken from a 70-year-old patient with a severe retinal disease — age-related macular degeneration (macular degeneration), from which iPS artificial stem cells were grown. From these cells, retinal pigment epithelium cells were then grown, which were transplanted during the operation. -19 stem cells
