Can Bone Marrow Transplantation Help Patients With Multiple Sclerosis?
Maybe. That’s what several teams of researchers in the US and Europe are now trying to determine. Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease that attacks the central nervous system. In patients with MS, the immune system malfunctions and destroys myelin. Myelin is a mixture of lipids (fat) and protein that surrounds and insulates nerves. The exact cause of MS is unclear. Several studies suggest that exposure to an environmental agent, possibly a virus, triggers the immune system to malfunction in persons who have a genetic predisposition to developing the disease. Some researchers believe MS develops 7 to 10 years after exposure to the environmental agent. Of the 300,000 persons in the US living with MS, most are women. Patients are usually diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 40. Symptoms of MS may be mild, such as numbness or weakness in the limbs, blurred vision, clumsiness, or severe, such as paralysis, loss of intellect and blindness. Approximately 70 percent of patients experien
