A study investigating possible treatment for autism involving the injection of stem cells grown from each participant's own stored cord blood has received approval to proceed from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Thirty children with autism between two and seven years old will be given injections and then re-evaluated after six months. They will received injections again and will then be evaluated again after another six months. Half of the participants will receive the actual stem cell treatment and the other half will receive a placebo in the first round. In the second round the treatment and placebo will be reversed. The participants and those evaluating their response will not know which participants are receiving treatment during each round to avoid influencing the evaluation results. The researchers are hopeful they will get measurable results which could come about through several possible mechanisms, but others are skeptical.
Read more about it at bloomberg.com here:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-21/stem-cell-therapy-for-autism-to-be-tested-in-first-trial.html
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