February 17, 2010, Updated September 24, 2012

Pluristem Therapeutics of Israel has announced that the results of a pre-clinical study in an animal model of ischemic stroke demonstrated that its PLacental eXpanded (PLX) cell therapy may be an effective treatment for this disorder.

Results of the study, conducted in collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute for Immunology and Cell Therapy (IZI) in Leipzig, Germany, will be published in the coming issue of the journal Brain Research.

The study indicates that in animals treated with PLX cells there were significant differences to the control groups in the following parameters: Improvement in sensory and motor deficits; reduction in the development of the stroke lesion; and increase in the production of glial nerve tissue.

These effects occurred even though the PLX cells were administered eight and 24 hours after the inducement of the stroke. This suggests that the use of PLX cells in ischemic stroke may allow patients a longer window of time for successful treatment after the stroke’s onset.

Optimal current therapy dictates that patients must be treated within four and a half hours after the onset of ischemic stroke. PLX cells may increase this window from four and a half hours up to eight hours.

Despite the study’s positive results, Dr. Johannes Boltze of IZI, who is the senior author of the publication, cautions that, “… our knowledge concerning modes of action and optimal treatment paradigms must be enlarged in further experiments before considering clinical application.”

In a previous study, findings indicated that Pluristem’s PLX-1 cell therapy product may improve treatment of blood disorders.

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