Korea University Anam Hospital (KUAH) said its neurosurgery team is drawing the attention of academia with the study results of regenerative therapies, including the finding of new mediators for the stem cell therapy of ischemic stroke.
The research team, led by Professor Park Dong-hyuk, has made significant findings in regenerative treatment using stem cells and provided milestones for improved therapy for ischemic stroke with intravenous stem cell administration, the hospital said.
Stroke is one of the most important socio-economic diseases as the world now sees a rapidly aging society. The disease is the third leading cause of death after cancer and heart disease in Korea as of 2019. Patients with chronic ischemic stroke require regenerative medicines as there are no appropriate treatments available for those who cannot receive thrombolytic drugs or mechanical thrombus removal in the acute stage.
Professor Lee Sang-won of the Department of Chemistry at Korea University also participated in the study.
The proteins discovered by the team are 14-3-3 theta, MAG, and neurocan. The researchers also found a new potential mediator that might show the therapeutic effect of mesenchymal stem cells for cerebral infarction.
Professor Park’s study, “Label-Free Quantitative Proteome Profiling of Cerebrospinal Fluid from a Rat Stroke Model with Stem Cell Therapy,” was published in the recent issue of Cell Transplantation.
Earlier, Park and his team reported that administering mannitol before intravenous administration of adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells in animals with cerebral infarction could double the curing effect.
The research team’s previous study, “Mannitol Augments the Effects of Systemical Stem Cell Transplantation without Increasing Cell Migration in a Stroke,” was published in Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine. It is expected to be an important clinical foundation that could increase the effectiveness of the treatment of cerebral infarction when a stem cell treatment is approved for use.
Professor Park treats patients with cerebrovascular diseases and conducts studies with biopharmaceutical firms developing treatments for ischemic stroke, vascular dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease.