Albany Med Physicians First to Use Pig Cells in Spinal Cord Surgery -- April 24, 2001

            ALBANY, N.Y., April 24, 2001 — Physicians at the Albany Medical Center and scientists from Diacrin, Inc., of Charlestown, Mass., have become the first in the world to implant fetal spinal cord cells from a pig into the spinal cord of a quadriplegic patient in hopes of restoring some degree of function.

            The historic procedure was performed at Albany Medical Center on April 13 by neurosurgeon Darryl DiRisio, M.D., and orthopedic surgeon Allen Carl, M.D. Details of the surgery were released today. The patient, Charles Dederick, 50, of Schenectady is currently at home recovering.

            The physicians cautioned that it will be months before they know whether the operation has resulted in any spinal cord regeneration. “This is unknown territory but whatever the result this study should provide scientific data that will prove useful in our quest to reverse the permanency of spinal cord injury,” the physicians said in a joint statement.

            Albany Medical Center and Washington University Medical Center in St. Louis, Mo., are the only two institutions in the United States selected to perform the experimental procedures. Both medical centers are authorized by the Food and Drug Administration to do six procedures this year in Phase 1 of the clinical trial with Diacrin. Physicians at Washington University are expected to do their first procedure next month.

            Dederick lost the use of his legs and most of his arm function in 1997 when his spinal cord was severely injured in a motorcycle accident along Sacandaga Lake.

            During the 3 1/2 hour long surgical procedure at Albany Med earlier this month, the damaged spinal cord was exposed and a fine needle and syringe were used to inject the porcine cells into the spinal cord. Magnetic resonance imaging was used to precisely target the specific area of the spinal cord that was damaged in the accident, and a total of 14 million cells were deposited into this area by seven separate injections.

This is one of a number of studies on spinal cord injury being conducted by Drs. DiRisio and Carl. Dr. Carl is a member of the Spinal Cord Injury Research Trust Fund of the New York State Department of Health.

            According to Jon Dinsmore, Ph.D., senior director of cell transplantation at Diacrin, the primary goals of the study with Albany Med and Washington University are to ensure the safety of the procedure by careful monitoring and analysis of all patients to be enrolled in the study and also to determine whether the experimental procedure results in any clinically measurable regeneration of the spinal cord.

            Fetal neural cells are used because they are in a rapid growth mode and because they are “functionally indistinguishable from human fetal neural cells,” according to a spokesman from Diacrin, the firm that provides the cells and sponsors the study. In a process developed by Diacrin, the pig proteins on cell surfaces are masked by antibodies to prevent the immediate rejection that would otherwise destroy such cross-species “xenografts.” The masking technique appears to eliminate the need for long-term immune-suppressing drugs.

            Diacrin is developing cell transplantation technology for treating human diseases that are characterized by cell dysfunction or cell death and for which current therapies are either inadequate or nonexistent. Products under development include: NeuroCell-PD for Parkinson’s disease; porcine neural cells for stroke, focal epilepsy and intractable pain; porcine spinal cord cells for spinal cord injury; NeuroCell-HD for Huntington’s disease; porcine liver cells for acute liver failure; human liver cells for cirrhosis; human muscle cells for cardiac disease; and porcine retinal pigment epithelial cells for macular degeneration.

            Today’s news conference was held at the Bone and Joint Center of The Orthopedic Group, a community partner of the Medical Center.

            The Albany Medical Center is northeastern New York’s only academic health sciences center. It consists of one of the nation’s oldest medical schools, the Albany Medical College; one of New York’s largest teaching hospitals, the Albany Medical Center Hospital; and one of the Capital Region’s most active fund-raising organizations, the Albany Medical Center Foundation, Inc. Further information about this particular clinical research trial or others being conducted in conjunction with Diacrin is available by calling 617-242-1610.