Surgery to Repair Myelin in MS Patient

In a groundbreaking clinical trial, surgeons have transplanted cells from the ankle into the brain of two multiple sclerosis (MS) patients in an effort to repair myelin, the protective brain and spinal cord sheath that is destroyed by MS. The trial is taking place at the Yale School of Medicine (New Haven, CT, USA; www.yale.edu).

Animal studies show that Schwann cells can replace the cells that generate myelin. So the Yale surgeons harvested Schwann cells from the patient's ankle and injected them into the patient's brain, which had lesions. The patient is then monitored for six months by neuroimaging and other tests. After six months, a small biopsy will be taken to determine whether the cells survived and whether they made any myelin. Two patients have undergone the procedure and three more are scheduled to participate.

"The patient is doing fine,” said Timothy Vollmer, M.D., associate professor of neurology at Yale, referring to the second patient who had the procedure. "He has a high level of disability because of the locations of the lesions in the brain, but he is otherwise healthy.”




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