New emerging concepts in the medical management of local radiation injury.
Treatment of severe radiation burns remains a difficult medical challenge. The response of the skin to ionizing radiation results in a range of clinical manifestations. The most severe manifestations are highly invalidating. Although several therapeutic strategies (excision, skin grafting, skin or muscle flaps) have been used with some success, none have proven entirely satisfying. The concept that stem cell injections could be used for reducing normal tissue injury has been discussed for a number of years. Mesenchymal stem cells therapy may be a promising therapeutic approach for improving radiation-induced skin and muscle damages. Pre-clinical and clinical benefit of mesenchymal stem cell injection for ulcerated skin and muscle restoration after high dose radiation exposure has been successfully demonstrated. Three first patients suffering from severe radiological syndrome were successfully treated in France based on autologous human grade mesenchymal stem cell injection combined to plastic surgery or skin graft. Stem cell therapy has to be improved to the point that hospitals can put safe, efficient, and reliable clinical protocols into practice.
Benderitter
Marc
M
Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire, Laboratoire de Radiopathologie et de Thérapie Expérimentale, BP 17, 92262 Fontenay- aux-Roses, France. marc.benderitter@irsn.fr
Gourmelon
Patrick
P
Bey
Eric
E
Chapel
Alain
A
Clairand
Isabelle
I
Prat
Marie
M
Lataillade
Jean Jacques
JJ
D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D059630:Mesenchymal Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology; D009132:Muscles / Q000473:pathology; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011832:Radiation Injuries / Q000628:therapy*; D011874:Radiometry; D012867:Skin / Q000473:pathology / Q000528:radiation effects*; D012871:Skin Diseases / Q000209:etiology* / Q000628:therapy; D016038:Skin Transplantation; D033581:Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000379:methods; D016896:Treatment Outcome