Stem cell trial may bring end of back pain for millions

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A team at the University of Manchester has developed a stem cell cure that could totally regenerate damaged tissues.

• Best way to ease back pain? Relax your office chair

Low back pain affects up to 80 per cent of the population at some point, and in many cases becomes persistent, eventually leading to debilitating pain.

It is usually caused by the degeneration of the tissue between the discs in the back, which becomes dry and no longer able to support the body.

Current treatments rely on strong painkillers or risky surgery, and aim to reduce the pain rather than curing the problem.

The Manchester team's treatment regenerates the damaged tissue using stem cells from the patient's own bone marrow.

"Stem cells ... will be grown in culture and our patented method of differentiation will be applied," said Dr Stephen Richardson, who developed the technique. "They will then be embedded in a gel which can be implanted into the patient."

The team hope to start large pre-clinical trials next year, and say a commercial product could be available soon after.

Researchers say the new treatment could lead to NHS cost savings as patients could be treated quickly and effectively without extended hospital stays.

Only one treatment should be needed in a lifetime and there would be no need for continuous treatments with painkillers and physiotherapy.

In the UK alone the combined figures for lost productivity and health-care costs due to low back pain run in the tens of millions of pounds a year. This will only increase as the population ages.