Can i use stem cell treatment to repair my damaged lung when my illness in remission? Marko from Serbia

[mi198025]

[mi198025]

I have ABPA

[GAtherton Administrator Fungal Infection Trust]

Not yet - this technology is showing great promise for the future but is not yet at a level we could start to use it in humans.

In a recent talk (slideshare.net/GTAtherton/s... I mentioned this technology and also mentioned that our lungs use stem cells to repair themselves so perhaps we will be able to work out how to stimulate them to work a bit faster!

We would probably need to be able to remove the fungus first (even in remission your lungs are infected) and it is becoming clearer in our recent research (slideshare.net/GTAtherton/n... that ABPA (and CPA) sufferers may have a genetic cause contributing to susceptibility to infection. Once we can correct that genetic defect we might be able to prevent it in the first place, maybe even start to get rid of it in those with established infections.

However this is all speculation - at the moment there are no useful ways to correct a genetic defect in our lungs. We are the start of a long journey and have taken the first vitally important steps, a few important signposts have been successfully passed.