Replies to post #3574 on Pluristem Therapeutics Inc (PSTI)

[SuperSquirrel]

peer reviews now online...

http://www.pluristem.com/technology/peer-reviewed-articles/

[surf1944]

3:55AM Pluristem Therapeutics reports on the progress of its Phase I/II clinical trial for the treatment of muscle injury (PSTI) 3.19 : Co reports on the progress of its ongoing double blind Phase I/II clinical trial to test the safety and efficacy of its PLacental Expanded cells in the treatment of muscle injury. This is the first time PLX cells have been used in patients following surgically induced muscle trauma.

The muscle injury being studied is the gluteal buttock muscle that has been surgically traumatized during hip replacement surgery. The primary endpoint of the study is safety with a secondary endpoint of gluteal muscle function at 6 months with the ability to perform biopsies of the involved muscle. PLX cells will be injected directly into the surgical incision after it has been sutured. Three groups of six patients will be enrolled in the study. From each group of six patients, two patients will receive a high dose of PLX cells, two patients will receive a low dose of PLX cells and two patients will receive placebo. The first group of six patients has been dosed without a significant adverse event related to either the placebo or the PLX cell product candidate.

[SuperSquirrel]

"That is what’s unique, and it all started when Meretzki was studying biotechnology and chemical engineering at Technion Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel, about 15 years ago. What if it were possible, he thought, to grow cells in three dimensions rather than the traditional two-dimension method?

“Many people grow cells two-dimensionally in a petri dish, in which you put the cells and they grow across the dish in a mono layer. But in our body, nothing is 2-D. What we’ve found is that the moment you take 2-D cells and grow them in 3-D, they behave completely differently,” the Israeli doctor and scientist said.

Meretzki’s research group was the first in the world to grow cells in a 3-D culture. He went on to found Pluristem Therapeutics (Nasdaq:PSTI), a biotechnology company that develops off-the-shelf cell therapies for a variety of human diseases. That was 11 years ago. It's now a public company worth about $200 million and employing about 150 people in Haifa.

Pluristem takes a small amount of cells from discarded placentas after childbirth and uses them to grow a larger amount specifically for people who suffer from peripheral arterial disease, or problems with blood flow to the legs. The cells are injected into the leg and ultimately promote the growth of new blood vessels.

“After a few days the cells disappear, but you have a bypass of the block of the blood vessels that you have in your leg,” Meretzki said.

Results of the first clinical trial in Israel and Germany are positive: Of 20 patients who would otherwise have required leg amputations, only one lost the limb."

http://www.ibtimes.com/israels-medical-startups-can-regrow-bones-can-they-do-so-money-1251649#