http://www.centralchronicle.com/printnews.asp?articleID=40840

The Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University here has achieved yet another milestone, becoming the first university in the world to treat a spinal injury of a dog through stem cell therapy.

Addressing a press conference here in connection with the 'International Seminar on Frontiers of Stem cell and Biotechnology in Human and Veterinary Medicine', university Vice Chancellor P Thangaraju said a nine month-old Boxer was given a new lease of life about six months ago, thanks to stem cell therapy.

The nine-month old dog 'Rambo' was imobilised after it met with an accident that left him with a broken spinal cord.

He said it had a spinal cord injury due to compression fracture of thoracic vertebra and dislocation between thoracic vertebra 12 and 13 and had grade 4 paraplegia.

The dog was treated with its own adult stem cells harvested from the bone marrow of femur seeded in Thermoreversible gelation polymer, he said.

The whole procedure of collection of stem cells, contrast radiography (myelography), surgical procedures and engraftment were done in the Department of Veterinary Surgery and Radiology, Madras Veterinary College Teaching Hospital and the stem cell processing was done in the Nichi-In Center for Regenerative Medicine, Chennai.

Further, a dose of expanded autologous adult stem cells were administered on the 42nd post engraftment day. The dog showed steady progress in its gait and could walk unassisted on the 92nd post engraftment day, which is a great encouragement in the outcome of grade 4 paraplegic dogs, he said.

''We plan to track the engrafted stem cells in our future studies. The initiatives in stem cell research in this college for evolving clinical protocols gained momentum after an MoU with Nichi-In Center for Regenerative Medicine, Chennai and starting two research projects funded by Department of Biotechnology, Government of India'', he said.

July 7, 2010 (Central Chronicle)