Pluristem Announces Safety of PLX Cells in Pre-Clinical Pregnancy Model

Pluristem Therapeutics

announced today that its PLacental eXpanded (PLX) cells proved to be safe in an animal study assessing maternal and fetal toxicity. The study was conducted at the Charles River Laboratories, one of the world's leading contract research organizations. The results showed that the intramuscular administration of PLX-PAD cells to pregnant rats did not result in any maternal or fetal toxicity. Pluristem will pursue the clinical development of PLX-PAD cells for the indication of preeclampsia based on these results and earlier evidence that the cells were efficacious in preeclamptic animal models. "Pluristem is extremely pleased with the demonstrated safety of our PLX-PAD cells in pre-clinical models of pregnancy," said Zami Aberman, Chairman and CEO of Pluristem. "This study, together with the work performed by Dr. Brett Mitchell from Texas A&M College of Medicine,suggesting that our PLX-PAD cells are efficacious in preeclamptic animal models, is an important milestone towards our goal of initiating clinical trials for preeclampsia." In the study, forty-four pregnant female rats were injected intramuscularly with either PLX-PAD at a dosage of 10 million cells (n=22) or cell-free placebo (n=22), on