Lung damage from emphysema has been reversed for the first time using stem cells from patients’ own organs, bringing hope that a cure is imminent.
Two patients with mild emphysema saw the damage to their lungs repaired in a Chinese trial to see if the treatment was safe.
Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) also saw their lung function improve, and were able to walk for longer distances after the stem cell transplants.
Both conditions are usually irreversible and scientists from Tongji University in Shanghai are so encouraged by the results they now want to move to larger trials and hope that a treatment will be available within the next three years.
Professor Wei Zuo said stem cell therapies may be the only way to cure COPD and emphysema.
“We found that cell transplantation not only improved the lung function of patients with COPD, but also relieved their symptoms, such as shortness of breath, loss of exercise ability and persistent coughing,” he said.
“This means that the patients could live a better life, and usually with longer life expectancy.”
“If emphysema progresses, it increases the risk of death. In this trial, we found that cell transplantation could repair mild emphysema, making the lung damage disappear. However, we cannot repair severe emphysema yet.”
Almost 1.2 million people in Britain suffer from COPD which refers to a group of diseases which cause airflow blockage and breathing related problems.
People with emphysema are included in the umbrella term, but also have irreversible lung damage often from smoking, air pollution or chemicals.
Currently the conditions can only be alleviated with drugs.
In the trials scientists used a tiny brush to collect stem cells from the lungs of 17 patients and then cloned them to create up to a thousand million more, before transplanting them into the patients’ lungs via a bronchoscopy - a tube down the throat.
After 24 weeks, the ability of the lungs to exchange air in the bloodstream had increased by one third.
“Stem cell and progenitor cell-based regenerative medicine may be the biggest, if not the only, hope to cure COPD,” added Professor Zuo.
“We are going to test the treatment’s efficacy in larger groups of people with more lung diseases. We hope to develop the treatment for clinical use within about two to three years.”
The research was presented at the European Respiratory Society International Congress in Milan, Italy.
Professor Omar Usmani, of Imperial College London, head of the European Respiratory Society group on airways disease, asthma, COPD and chronic cough, said: “The results from this phase I clinical trial are encouraging.
“COPD is in desperate need of new and more effective treatments, so if these results can be confirmed in subsequent clinical trials it will be very exciting.
“It is also very encouraging that two patients with emphysema responded so well.”