Cell Therapy

Overview :

Origins

The theory behind cell therapy has been in existence for several hundred years. The first recorded discussion of the concept of cell therapy can be traced to Phillippus Aureolus Paracelsus (1493–1541), a German-Swiss physician and alchemist who wrote in his Der grossen Wundartzney ("Great Surgery Book") in 1536 that "the heart heals the heart, lung heals the lung, spleen heals the spleen; like cures like." Paracelsus and many of his contemporaries agreed that the best way to treat an illness was to use living tissue to restore the ailing. In 1667, at a laboratory in the palace of Louis XIV, Jean-Baptiste Denis (1640–1704) attempted to transfuse blood from a calf into a mentally ill patient—and since blood transfusion is, in effect, a form of cell therapy, this could be the first documented case of this procedure. However, the first recorded attempt at non-blood cellular therapy occurred in 1912 when German physicians attempted to treat children with hypothyroidism, or an under-active thyroid, with thyroid cells.

In 1931, Dr. Paul Niehans (1882–1971), a Swiss physician, became known as "the father of cell therapy" quite by chance. After a surgical accident by a colleague, Niehans attempted to transplant a patient's severely damaged parathyroid glands with those of a steer. When the patient began to rapidly deteriorate before the transplant could take place, Niehans decided to dice the steer's parathyroid gland into fine pieces, mix the pieces in a saline solution, and inject them into the dying patient. Immediately, the patient began to improve and, in fact, lived for another 30 years.

Cell therapy is, in effect, a type of organ transplant which has also been referred to as "live cell therapy," "xenotransplant therapy," "cellular suspensions," "glandular therapy," or "fresh cell therapy." The procedure involves the injection of either whole fetal xenogenic (animal) cells (e.g., from sheep, cows, pigs, and sharks) or cell extracts from human tissue. The latter is known as autologous cell therapy if the cells are extracted from and transplanted back into the same patient. Several different types of cells can be administered simultaneously.

Just as Paracelsus's theory of "like cures like," the types of cells that are administered correspond in some way with the organ or tissue in the patient that is failing. No one knows exactly how cell therapy works, but proponents claim that the injected cells travel to the similar organ from which they were taken to revitalize and stimulate that organ's function and regenerate its cellular structure. In other words, the cells are not species specific, but only organ specific. Supporters of cellular treatment believe that embryonic and fetal animal tissue contain active therapeutic agents distinct from vitamins, minerals, hormones, or enzymes.

Swedish researchers have successfully transplanted human fetal stem cells into human recipients, and the procedure is being investigated further as a possible treatment for repairing brain cells in Parkinson's patients. However, because the cells used in these applications must be harvested from aborted human fetuses, there is an ethical debate over their use.

Currently, applications of cell therapy in the United States is still in the research, experimental, and clinical trial stages. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of one cellular therapy technique for repairing damaged knee joints. The procedure involves removing healthy chondrocyte cells, the type of cell that forms cartilage, from the patient, culturing them in a laboratory for three to four weeks, and then transplanting them back into the damaged knee joint of the patient.

PAUL NIEHANS (1882–1971)

Paul Niehans was born and raised in Switzerland. His father, a doctor, was dismayed when he entered the seminary, but Niehans quickly grew dissatisfied with religious life and took up medicine after all. He first studied at Bern, then completed an internship in Zurich.

Niehans enlisted in the Swiss Army in 1912. When war erupted in the Balkans, Niehans set up a hospital in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. The war provided him the opportunity to treat numerous patients, gaining a firsthand knowledge of the body and its workings.

Since 1913, Niehans had been intrigued with Alexis Carrel's experiments concerning the adaptive abilities of cells, though Niehans himself specialized in glandular transplants and by 1925 was one of the leading glandular surgeons in Europe.

Niehans referred to 1931 as the birth year of cellular therapy. That year, he treated a patient suffering from tetany whose parathyroid had been erroneously removed by another physician. Too weak for a glandular transplant, the patient was given injections of the parathyroid glands of steer, and she soon recovered. Niehans made more injections, even experimenting on himself, and reported he could cure illnesses through injections of live cells extracted from healthy animal organs. He believed adding new tissue stimulated rejuvenation and recovery.

Niehans treated Pope Pious XII with his injections and was nominated to the Vatican Academy of Science following the pope's recovery.

Niehans remained a controversial figure throughout his life. As of 2000, the Clinique Paul Niehans in Switzerland, founded by his daughter, continued his work.