Tests by Italian doctors in which human neural stem cells were injected into sufferers of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) show the procedure is safe, according to a paper published in the Stem Cells Translational Medicine journal. As a result the team is set to move to the second stage of trials on the procedure.

The first stage of tests was conducted between 2012 and 2015 by Angelo Vescovi and Letizia Mazzini at the hospitals and clinics in Novara, Terni, Padua and San Giovanni Rotondo. The paper said that human neural stem cell (hNSC) lines were injected into gray matter tracts of the lumbar or cervical spinal cord of 18 patients.