Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) affects over 16 million Americans, limiting their ability to engage in activities and requiring special equipment like oxygen tanks. COPD can also lead to other chronic diseases.

COPD encompasses a group of conditions that cause breathing issues and airflow blockage. Chronic bronchitis and emphysema both contribute to COPD. While most cases of COPD result from the effects of smoking cigarettes, genetic factors, air pollutants, and respiratory infections can also lead to the condition.

Physicians can treat the symptoms of COPD with oral medications, steroid inhalers, and lung therapy, but the damage sustained by the lungs is permanent. In addition, since most people don’t know they have COPD until symptoms develop, the lungs and airways often have significant trauma by the time a patient receives their diagnosis.

A New Look at Regenerative Medicine for COPD

Regenerative medicine, also known as stem cell therapy, offers a groundbreaking approach to managing the damage caused to the lungs by COPD. Researchers have performed a new study aiming to pinpoint how stem cells work in the body for COPD patients.

The new study treated nine adults with moderate to severe COPD in Perth, Australia. All patients received intravenous infusions of human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). As this trial tried to identify how MSC treatments affected COPD, researchers studied the gene activity in each patient’s blood at different stages—before they received stem cell therapy and in the hours and days following treatment.

Effects of Stem Cell Therapy on COPD

The blood draws from the study showed that MSCs significantly reduced inflammation by reducing the pro-inflammatory molecules that drive COPD. In addition, the post-MSC infusion blood also showed immunoregulatory factors that help the genes within cells regulate their activity.

The patients’ periodic blood draws showed that the anti-inflammatory benefits of MSC treatments were the most pronounced on the first day after the infusion and declined over the week, making a case for weekly treatments to maintain benefits.

These results offered new insight into how MSCs provide immunomodulation and anti-inflammatory benefits, confirming the benefits of stem cell therapies for COPD. They also guide further studies on using stem cells to cure patients with COPD.

This post was written by a medical professional at Stemedix Inc. At Stemedix we provide access to Regenerative Medicine for hair, also Stem cell treatment for COPD. Regenerative medicine has the natural potential to help improve symptoms sometimes lost from the progression of many conditions.