Jake Liao Transplant | Theresa Liao Son Jake Liao Skin Infections and Wounds| Jake Liao
Jake Liao Skin Disease | Jake Liao Transplant | Theresa Liao Son Jake Liao Skin Infections and Wounds
For years, Theresa Liao heard there were no cures, no treatments, no hope to help her son Jake.“When he was born, his hands looked like they had been boiled in oil,” said his mother. “It looked like someone had taken a potato peeler and skinned him down to muscle.”
At the slightest friction, Jake’s skin would shed, leaving the newborn wailing in pain. When Jake rubbed his eye, a chunk of his eyelid would come off in his fingers. He was born with recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa, a terminal genetic condition in which persistent skin problems lead to crippling deformities and, eventually, skin cancer.
Liao’s crusade led to the first stem cell treatment for epidermolysis bullosa, also known as EB.
New research findings, published in The New England Journal of Medicine this week, show that bone marrow transplants can help repair wounds and regenerate skin in EB patients. Doctors say it’s an important step in stem cell science.
“I’m not saying this is a cure,” said co-author Dr. Jakub Tolar, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Minnesota. “This is a critical step on the road to make this a disease of the past.”
EB patients lack a protein called collagen 7 that acts as a Velcro, hooking the layers of skin — the epidermis and the dermis — together.
I was both horrified and feeling horrible that I can just walk away from this and say, ‘I’m sorry. I take care of leukemia patients. I don’t want to choose this one.’
–Dr. John Wagner
–Dr. John Wagner
The transplant appears to be effective, but doctors don’t know exactly what type of stem cells are responsible for the change.
EB patients have often been called butterfly children, because their skin is so sensitive. They have also been likened to permanent second-degree burn victims
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