Stem Cell research and Crohns

I haven't been on in a while, so I'm sorry if this has been discussed before. 

Has anyone heard of this study or have any experience with it?  I just signed up to be part of the study.  It won't start for a few weeks, they need my med. records and a physical and ect...  Just wondering if anyone else had done it already or heard anything about it.  It sounds very interesting, they use adult, donated stem cells, apparently it has been working great in Crohns disease patients. 

Thanks,

Dory

Yes, thats the study.  I figure even if it doesn't work for me, any research done for  crohns is a good thing.  My son, who is only  23, was just diagnosed with it.  So, just maybe there will be something out soon enough to help him.  I have been on just about everything, except Humira, had a very very bad reaction to remicade and that was the last new drug I've tried.  Nothing has ever worked for me, including surgery.  I've had 2 resections since I was diagnosed 10 years ago.  And I have NEVER been in remission.  I've thought about research studies before but they just scared me, now I'm willing to try anything, I have nothing to lose.

Thanks for your response,

Dory

I signed up for this study but did not qualify because I hadn't been on steroids in the past 90 days, but now i am on them so i might try and be entered in a month or so. it sounds very promising and my doctor is great about trying to get me into clinical trials

Dory, I was in a clinical trial for Cimzia and the same doctors were starting one for stem cells recently but, after reading about it, I decided not to try.  It was a long commitment (2 years), especially if they don't work.  Plus, my Crohn's is in remission from Cimzia and Humira, so I figured I wouldn't be sick enough to get in (the arthritis from Crohn's is my biggest complaint currently).  Good luck...I hope you don't get stuck in the placebo group and I hope it works well for you!

So you did well on it sr? Did the benefit not last long for you? I ask because I see you are on Tysabri.

PROCHYMAL When Is it expected to become available for all of us?

Rider Fan -- I did very well on the Prochymal trial. Within 10 days life turned around... and this is after nothing else worked. Best I can tell, it lasted about 3 months. Not bad for 2 weeks/4 infusions! Most importantly for me, I responded better to that than I have to anything so far.

it is my understanding they are looking at prochymal not only for CD, but for any area in the body with inflammation. MS, Graft vs host disease(transplant) who knows what else. glad to finally see this moving

I don't know how Osiris plans to layout treatment options, but I can't see how infusing stem cells would be a "long term" ("cure") type of thing since the patient's immune system is already "programmed." The stem cell trials that are giving long term (years) relief is more the type where the patient undergoes chemotherapy to kill their own immune system then is either infused with their own (harvested) or a donor's stem cells. That, in effect, resets the immune system... Prochymal does not do that. (this is all just my understanding.)

The mesenchymal cells in Prochymal are neutral - from a variety of donors and "washed" - and any that are the not the right type are just flushed from the system. But the cells attach to the areas of inflammation when they find it and, it was explained to me, have a bit of immune suppressing qualities at the site. They stop the inflammation process and help rebuild healthy tissue.

I had a second round of infusions, but was re-randomized and got no benefit from the second randomizaton. So, I quit the study which was 3.5 hrs north of me... I was hoping I'd get the high dose and it would "fix" me enough to stick in remission longer. but that was a lot of driving for no benefit and there were to be no further randomizations.