The Regional Public Charity Foundation for Seriously ill and Abandoned Children regularly helps the Center for Microvascular Surgery, headed by Dr. Alexander V. Bystrov. Within our permanent program for rehabilitation of children after spinal cord injuries, our foundation helps patients of the Russian Children's Clinical Hospital who need Dospekhi (Armor) orthopedic systems.

The second component of this program consists in bioengineering methods of autologous cell therapy. They are now becoming increasingly popular in treatment and rehabilitation of patients with not only CNS lesions but also with peripheral nervous system disorders. These techniques open favorable prospects for these patients, providing complete or partial restoration of sensation and motion in limbs. Therefore, we think it appropriate to work on a separate program for support of cell technologies in microsurgery and traumatology.

12.11.2008

23.11.2009 Fundraising for treatment of Dzhamaludin Aliev and Igor Konyaev has been interrupted, because their treatment will be postponed.

	Dzhamaludin Aliev, 8 years old; congenital paresis of facial nerve on the right. Cell harvesting and cultivation cost 60,000 roubles ($1835). The boy is from a poor family of many children; his parents cannot pay for the treatment themselves. 8.06.2009
	Igor Konyaev, 12 years old. Posttraumatic lesions of ulnar, radial, and median nerves. Cell harvesting and cultivation cost 60,000 roubles ($1835). The boy is from a poor family, and the parents cannot raise the required sum themselves. 8.06.2009

1.05.2009
Presently ten patients of our department with lesions of the peripheral nervous system need the use of bioengineering technologies for their treatment. Some of these children are already at our department, and others will be invited for treatment before the end of 2009.
We must pay the entire sum for preparation of neural growth factors at the Institute of Transplantology and Artificial Organs all at once. The reagent kits for 10 patients cost a total of 330,000 roubles (about $10,000).
Your help in fundraising is urgently needed!

2.11.2008
Presently two patients of the Department of Microvascular Surgery need the use of the aforementioned method for their treatment: Alexei Fedotov and Natalia Chernobrova.

Children with spinal cord injuries are the most gravely ill patients at our Center for Microvascular Surgery. We try to cure their neurotrophic ulcers, which are due to their main disorder. Rehabilitation of children with spinal cord injuries (of traumatic origin or due to diseases) is a problem that has many aspects. One of its aspects consists in the fact that such injuries lead to neurotrophic ulcers, which can lead to very serious infectious complications, including even generalized ones. Treatment of trophic ulcers in such children is a very difficult process; there are many different medications and methods, and new approaches are regularly developed.
Presently the most efficient method of treatment is combined, using medications that heal tissue defects and the bioengineering method of autologous cell technology, which uses pluripotent (multifunctional) cells of the patient's own organism. The essence of the method is as follows: prior to the main surgery, the patient's own bone marrow cells are harvested, and then cells of the kind that is necessary in each individual case are cultivated. If cells are necessary for regenation of bone tissue, then osteoblasts are isolated and grown; if a soft-tissue defect is to be filled, the cells used for this purpose are fibroblasts with vascular cells (endotheliocytes), which replenish this defect with well-vascularized connective tissue.

April 14, 2005

At the Department of Traumatology and Orthopedics of the Russian Children's Clinical Hospital, surgical treatment using cell therapy (cultivation and application of autologous bone tissue cells in combination with a bone graft) has been successfully used since 2005 for surgical treatment of patients with grave bone defects (congenital false joint, osteomyelitis).
As a result, the integrity of leg bones is restored and the patients become able to walk again. The Regional Public Charity Foundation for Seriously ill and Abandoned Children finances cultivation of osteoblasts and preparation of bone grafts for this group of patients.

Several patients have already received or are still receiving multistage treatment using cell technologies: Ilsur Vagapov, Sar-Ali Batalov, Igor Mikhailov and Yana Mikheenko.

April 10, 2007

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