Stem cell therapy is considered as a promising therapy for some degenerative diseases. The first clinical application of stem cells in Vietnam was performed in 1995 that medicine doctors at Blood Transfusion Hospital, Ho Chi Minh city used hematopoietic stem cells for leukemia treatment.
However, more than 20 years (1995-2017), all treatments using stem cells in Vietnam is autologous, non-expanded stem cell transplantation.
In March 28th 2017, Ministry of Health approved the first allogenic expanded mesenchymal stem cell therapy for type 1 diabetes mellitus.
This approval permits Van Hanh General Hospital (Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam) to carry out the clinical trial phase 1b/2a that using allogenic expanded mesenchymal stem cells derived from umbilical cord tissue in combination with bone marrow concentrates to cure type 1 diabetes mellitus.
According to the approval letter, this clinical trial will recruit 30 patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus. These patients will be intravenously transplanted a combo of umbilical cord tissue derived mesenchymal stem cells and bone marrow concentrates.
This clinical trial is the collaboration of Stem Cell Institute, University of Science, VNUHCM, Vietnam with Van Hanh General Hospital. The umbilical cord tissue derived mesenchymal stem cell isolation and expansion has developed by Dr. Phuc Van Pham since 2012. This technology does not use any animal proteins during the cell manufacturing.
More information about technology here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26679929
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