The Myoblast Transfer Therapy procedure for Muscular Dystrophy starts with a muscle biopsy – the extraction of a small piece (two grams) of healthy muscle from the thigh of a normal, healthy volunteer donor, generally a young male. Using local anesthesia a surgeon performs the biopsy procedure.
From the muscle biopsy, cell culturists extract immature muscle cells called satellite cells or myoblasts. These cells are then grown in special media in a sterile laboratory. It takes four to six weeks to grow 50 billion myoblasts from one biopsy.
When the myoblasts are ready, orthopedic surgeons inject these cells while the patient is under local anesthesia in a sterile surgical suite. After the procedure is completed, the subject recovers over a 2-3 day period under observation by a trained physician. Hospitalization is usually not necessary.
The patient returns home, and continues a course of physical therapy to stimulate the newly injected muscle cells to grow. The patient takes oral doses of an immunosuppressant shortly before and for two months after the procedure to minimize the risk of rejection of the donor myoblasts.
The whole procedure requires no more than one week when the required amount of cells are available.
Post-Transplant Procedures
The effect of MTT on the health of subjects is monitored for 18 months after each transplant, including laboratory tests on blood and urine specimens. The effect of MTT on their strength is determined by statistical comparisons of objective measurements before and after MTT and of the placebo-injected versus the contralateral myoblast-injected muscles. In addition, CTRF clinical staff evaluate pulmonary function and behavioral changes before versus after the transplant.