With stem cell infusions, frail seniors get boost

MIAMI — There’s no medicine to prevent signs of aging like fatigue, muscle weakness and loss of balance.

But as scientists work to unlock the mysteries of why some 80-year-olds must live in nursing homes while others play tennis every week, researchers with the University of Miami’s Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute said they found the beginnings of what may be the first therapeutic treatment for frailty, a common condition of aging that can lead to falls and other adverse events.

An early stage clinical trial conducted in Miami found that elderly patients breathed easier and walked farther after receiving a single infusion of stem cells from young and healthy donors, according to two studies published this week in the Journals of Gerontology.

Stem cells can become specialized cells that can repair tissue damage.

“Every human being on the planet is aging,” said Dr. Joshua Hare, founding director of the Stem Cell Institute. “What isn’t understood so well is some people are aging successfully and some people are aging poorly.”

Hare said there’s a biological difference that causes some people to become frail in old age while others retain mobility and energy, and he believes it has to do with chronic inflammation in the body and the withering of cells and muscle tissue.

But medicine and society have largely accepted frailty as inevitable, Hare said.

The average age of those participating in the clinical trials was 78, Hare said, and those who received stem cell infusions intravenously showed physical improvement at three and six months after the therapy.