Date: 7/16/2011
TUMSPR News: TUMS officially announced its use of stem cell processing technology for the treatment of hard-to-treat diseases at Iran’s presidential building on July 13, 2011.
In a session participated by Dr. Ahmadinezhad, Dr. Marzieh Vahid-dastjerdi, the Minister of Health, Dr. Nasrin Soltankhah, the vice-president for Research and Technology and Dr. Bagher Larijani, the Chancellor of Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) unveiled the stem cell processing technology for the treatment of hard-to-treat-diseases on July 13, 2011 at Iran’s presidential building.
The project done by TUMS has been supported by the Presidential Center for Technology and Innovation Cooperation and the vice-president for Research and Technology.
Stem cells have a unique place in the treatment of diseases of the kidneys, digestive system, hematological disorders and diabetes.
Giving a report of research activities supported by her office and thanking TUMS Chancellor and Endocrinology and Metabolism Research Institute’s researchers for the achievement, Dr. Soltankhah said the project has been the end-result of a systematic and harmonious inter-sectoral task.
She added that “today we have been able to address the needs of the society by scientific findings”. She said by domestication of science we have been able to address the needs and develop science and technology in the country.
Giving an account of the undertaken scientific projects, Dr. Soltankha said “We are introducing a new approach to research in the country by using governmental and private sector’s capabilities to address the issues in need”.
Relating the history of stem cell research to the 19th century, TUMS Chancellor, Dr. Bagher Larijani, gave an account of the current project and said “Fortunately, today we have all the means to use stem-cell technology for cell therapy by the use of different stem cells, mesenchymal, cord blood, etc in the country and despite some difficulties in fetal cell therapy regarding access to those cells diabetes cell therapy has had a remarkable success and some of the patients have needed lower doses of insulin and some have done without it.
On the justification for undertaking the cell therapy for diabetes project, the chancellor said the disease has witnessed an increasing trend in the world and in the developing countries, including Iran, in recent years and no groundbreaking work has been done about it in the past 50 years. He said the new treatment modalities introduced in recent years have been complete pancreas transplantation, transplantation of insulin-producing beta cells and stem cells.
He added that the project had started in 2009 after being approved by the vice-president for research and technology and getting the support from the Ministry of Health and Medical Education, after it had been designed and ethically studied in 2007-2008.
Dr. Larijani said that after three years of follow up no evidence of cancer has been reported in the 48 from the initial 56 patients participating in the study.
On the efficacy of the transplanted stem cells that originate from fetal liver, the Chancellor said the blood glucose concentration decreases so significantly in the first 24 hours that the person needs to adjust the given insulin. In the second month, decreases in the need for insulin and increased c-peptide levels would occur in the second month but these positive effects would not persist in some of the patients.
Dr. Vahid-dastjerdi, the Minister of Health, said the stem cell technology with its best results with lowest side-effects has placed Iran among the few countries with the technology and stressed that the achievements were for all people around the world. She added that the use of stem cells from cord blood had been tried previously for bone marrow transplantations in the country [about 3000 BMTs so far].
Dr Vahid-dastjerdi said although we have achieved this technology but we are still at the beginning of the road and said better results were to be expected as the research center for hard-to-treat diseases had been approved to be established.
Referring to the application of the technology for the treatment of hard-to-treat diseases, Dr. Ahmadinezhad said this progress showed the infinite nature of scientific work and hope each day there were promising scientific news.
Referring to the speed of scientific undertakings in the country, he said we are not in a hurry for scientific research and the government was committed to providing support for research.
Indicating the infinite nature of scientific research, Dr. Ahmadinezhad emphasized that all the capacities of the country had to be put to use.
He finally said that all prophets have promised a better world and one way to materialized that dream is scientific undertaking, thinking, production of thought, production of science and technology and serving people
Photo gallery 1.
http://publicrelations.tums.ac.ir/gallery/detail.asp?galleryID=3596
Photo gallery 2.
http://publicrelations.tums.ac.ir/gallery/detail.asp?galleryID=3597
Photo gallery 3.
http://publicrelations.tums.ac.ir/gallery/detail.asp?galleryID=3594
http://publicrelations.tums.ac.ir/english/news/detail.asp?newsID=25922
No comments:
Post a Comment