Definitive treatment of stroke constitutes an important thesis of regenerative medicine in the cerebrovascular field. However, to date, no cell therapy products for stroke are yet on the market. In this study, we examined the clinical research trends related to cell therapy products in the stroke field based on data obtained from the ClinicalTrials.gov website and International Clinical Trials Research Platform (ICTRP) portal site. These data do not offer results of clinical trials comprehensively but provide information regarding various attributes of planned clinical trials including work in progress. We selected 78 cell therapy studies related to the field of stroke treatment from ClinicalTrial.gov and ICTRP. These were analyzed according to, e.g., the reporting countries, origin (autologous or allogeneic), of cell used, cell types and source organs, the progress of translational phases, target phase of the disease (acute or chronic stroke), and route of administration. This analysis revealed a trend whereby in the acute phase, mesenchymal stem cells were administered intravenously at a relatively higher dose, whereas in the chronic phase a small number of cells were administered intracranially. Only two randomized controlled Phase III studies with over 100 patients are registered, but none of them has been completed. Thus, cell therapy against stroke appears to constitute a premature area compared with cartilage repair as assessed in our previous report. In addition, tracking by means of the ID number of each trial via PubMed revealed that 44% of clinical studies in this field have corresponding published results, which was also discussed.
Inflammatory bowel disease is a multifactorial disease. Oxidative stress has been thought to be one of etiologic factor for inflammatory bowel disease. The genes superoxide dismutase (SOD2) and NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1) are involved in inflammation and oxidative stress. The purpose of the present case-control study with 134 patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) and 125 healthy controls was to determine whether polymorphisms of these genes, the NQO1 C609T and the SOD2 Ala-9Val, are associated with the risk of UC and influence the clinical characteristics. These polymorphisms were examined by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphisms and direct sequencing. In patients showing steroid resistance, the number with the NQO1 T/T genotype was significantly higher than other genotypes (odds ratio 9.45, 95% confidence interval 2.46-41.6, p = 0.002). In the patients whose onset of UC was age 20 years or younger, more patients had SOD2 T/T genotype than the other genotypes (odds ratio 6.46, 95% confidence interval 0.82-51.0). No association between these polymorphisms and UC risk was apparent. The NQO1 C609T polymorphism may influence steroid resistance of UC patients, while the SOD2 Ala-9Val polymorphism may influence age of onset of UC. Oxidative stress may influence the clinical features of UC.
Ser447stop and Hind III LPL polymorphisms may influence age of onset of UC, while Hind III and Pvu II polymorphisms influence serum triglyceride in UC patients.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.