Stem Cell Transplant Crohns Disease Research Offers Powerful New Hope
A major new clinical trial led by Queen Mary University of London and Barts Health NHS Trust is investigating whether stem cell transplant Crohns disease treatment can reset the immune system in patients who have not responded to any available therapy. Funded with £2 million through a partnership between the Medical Research Council and the National Institute for Health Research, the ASTIClite trial is recruiting patients from multiple centers across the UK. According to the Mayo Clinic, Crohn’s disease is a chronic inflammatory bowel condition that causes persistent diarrhea, abdominal pain, and fatigue, and for which no cure currently exists.
What Is Crohn’s Disease and Why Current Treatments Fall Short
Crohn’s disease causes inflammation of the digestive system lining, leading to diarrhea, abdominal pain, extreme fatigue, and other symptoms that significantly reduce quality of life. Current treatment options include anti-inflammatory drugs with varying effectiveness. In severe cases, surgery is required to remove diseased sections of the bowel. After multiple operations, some patients require a stoma, where the bowel is diverted to an opening in the abdomen with waste collected in an external pouch.
As Professor James Lindsay, the study’s chief investigator from Queen Mary’s Blizard Institute, noted, despite the introduction of new drugs, many patients do not respond or gradually lose response to all available treatments. For those patients, a stem cell transplant Crohns disease approach represents a fundamentally different strategy.
How the Stem Cell Transplant Crohns Disease Treatment Works
The treatment process used in the ASTIClite trial involves four stages. First, chemotherapy and hormone treatment are administered to mobilize stem cells. Second, stem cells are harvested from the patient’s blood. Third, further chemotherapy is used to eliminate the faulty immune system. Fourth, the harvested stem cells are reintroduced to rebuild a fresh immune system from scratch.
In theory, this new immune system will no longer trigger gut inflammation or attack drug compounds before they can take effect. The stem cell transplant Crohns disease approach has already shown success in treating multiple sclerosis, and researchers are now investigating whether the same mechanism can be applied to inflammatory bowel disease.
4 Powerful Findings From the ASTIClite and ASTIC Trials
1. Many Patients Experienced Real Benefits in the Original ASTIC Trial
The ASTIClite trial follows a 2015 predecessor study called ASTIC, which explored stem cell transplant Crohns disease therapy using similar methods. While the original trial did not cure the disease, many patients reported meaningful improvements in their symptoms and quality of life, providing enough evidence to justify the follow up study.
2. Drug Doses Are Being Reduced to Improve Safety
A key lesson from the ASTIC trial was that some patients experienced serious side effects due to the high doses of drugs used in the process. The ASTIClite trial directly addresses this by reducing drug doses while maintaining therapeutic intent, aiming to preserve the benefits of the stem cell transplant Crohns disease approach while significantly improving the safety profile.
3. A Patient Who Underwent the Treatment Reported Dramatic Improvement
Helen Bartlett, a Crohn’s disease patient who received stem cell therapy at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, described decades of failed surgeries and medications before the treatment. After the stem cell transplant, she described her improvement as impossible to fully put into words, stating she was no longer in constant pain despite still managing some ongoing symptoms.
4. The Trial Spans 8 Major NHS Institutions Across the UK
The scale of the ASTIClite trial reflects the level of institutional confidence in the stem cell transplant Crohns disease approach. Patients are being recruited through Barts Health, Cambridge University Hospitals, Guy’s and St Thomas’, NHS Lothian, Nottingham University Hospitals, Oxford University Hospitals, Royal Liverpool Hospital, and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, with additional researchers from eight universities contributing to the study.
Why This Research Matters for Gastroenterology and Beyond
As Professor Tom Walley, Director of NIHR Evaluation, Trials and Studies programs, emphasized, stem cell therapies represent an important and growing area of research with real potential to replace damaged tissue and alter the course of chronic disease. If the stem cell transplant Crohns disease trial succeeds, it could establish a new treatment pathway not only for Crohn’s disease but for other autoimmune and inflammatory conditions where the immune system itself drives the damage.
FOMAT conducts Phase I through Phase IV clinical research across a national network of investigator sites throughout the United States. To learn more about active gastroenterology and immunology studies, visit our patient active studies page.