Study Shows Stem Cells May Offer Long-Term Relief for Parry-Romberg Syndrome Patients

However this solution is at best temporary and alleviates none of the patient's pain; in fact, when the graft fails the patient often experiences an increase in suffering. This has left the medical world searching for a long-term solution to deal with the disease in a sustained way.

Dr. Kyeung-Suk Ko and Dr. Jong-Woo Choi led a research team under Dr. Jeong-chan Ra of RNL Stem Cell Technology Institute in Seoul that may have uncovered just such a tool.

In their controlled study, the team treated a group of Parry-Romberg patients with their own stem cells harvested from fat and then measured the results against patients treated with only traditional microfat grafts. They found that the patients who received stem cells saw unprecedented improvement in the effectiveness of therapies. Fat grafts that are often resorbed into patients' skin shortly after they are placed were 50 percent less likely to disappear when provided alongside stem cells (20.59 percent vs. 46.81 percent).

Dr. Ra said, "We believe that this is a big step for Parry-Romberg Syndrome patients and expect to see autologous stem cell transplantation as standard of care for their treatment. The next step is to test the efficacy of the many ways in which stem cells from adults' own bodies will expand the quality of life and even identify cures for many rare diseases."

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Annals of Plastic Surgery
The Sacramento Bee