Ilse Molendijk, Bert A Bonsing, Helene Roelofs, Koen C M J Peeters, Martin N J M Wasser, Gerard Dijkstra, C Janneke van der Woude, Marjolijn Duijvestein, Roeland A Veenendaal, Jaap-Jan Zwaginga, Hein W Verspaget, Willem E Fibbe, Andrea E van der Meulen-de Jong, Daniel W Hommes
BACKGROUND & AIMS: Patients with perianal fistulizing Crohn's disease have a poor prognosis because these lesions do not heal well. We evaluated the effects of local administration of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) to these patients from healthy donors in a double-blind, placebo-controlled study. METHODS: Twenty-one patients with refractory perianal fistulizing Crohn's disease were randomly assigned to groups given injections of 1 × 10(7) (n = 5, group 1), 3 × 10(7) (n = 5, group 2), or 9 × 10(7) (n = 5, group 3) MSCs, or placebo (solution with no cells, n = 6), into the wall of curettaged fistula, around the trimmed and closed internal opening...
October 2015: Gastroenterology