“Latest Stem Cells News”

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Medical College of Georgia researchers are conducting the first FDA-approved clinical trial to determine whether an infusion of stem cells from umbilical cord blood can improve the quality of life for children with cerebral palsy.

The study will include 40 children age 2-12 whose parents have stored cord blood at the Cord Blood Registry in Tucson, Ariz.
Umbilical cord blood is rich in stem cells, which can divide and morph into different types of cells throughout the body, said Dr. James Carroll, professor and chief of pediatric neurology in MCG School of Medicine and principal investigator on the study.

Cerebral palsy, caused by a brain injury or lack of oxygen in the brain before birth or during the first few years of life, can impair movement, learning, hearing, vision and cognitive skills. Two to 3 children in 1,000 are affected by it, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Animal studies indicate that infused stem cells help injured brain cells recover and replace brain cells that have died, Dr. Carroll said.

CordLife, Asia Pacific’s largest network of stem cell banks, on Wednesday launched the most advanced umbilical cord banking technology in the country. The technology has the ability to isolate two cell types that help in hastening the healing process of diabetic foot ulcers.

The patented technology allows access epithelial stem cells that can rejuvenate skin and mucus membranes for treating non-healing wounds as is seen in diabetic ulcer patients, said Steven Fang, group CEO, CordLife. With over 4 crore people in the country diagnosed with diabetes and 1 in every 6 estimated to have an ulcer during the lifetime, CordLife expects the new umbilical cord banking technology to help harvest the right and important stem cells that may prevent amputations, Fang said.

“Typically, diabteic ulcers are very difficult to heal. With epithelial stem cells, the ulcers can be healed within 45 days,” said Meghnath Roy Chowdhury, MD, CordLife Sciences India. The company has shelled out Rs 10 crore to put in place its first cord blood storage facility near Kolkata.

from http://www.mydigitalfc.com/good-living/new-stem-cell-banking-technology-cordlife-735

CordLife, one of the leading stem cell banking groups in the Asia Pacific region, is targeting expansion of its network in India and China, considering the huge birth rate in these two Asian nations, a top official said Wednesday.
“We’re looking at India and China as two big markets in terms of our stem cell business in the Asia Pacific region – keeping in mind the huge birth rate in these two countries,” CordLife group chief executive Steven Fang told IANS Wednesday on the sidelines of a press conference here.

“We’re presently in talks with a large number of big government and private hospitals across India to tie up with them for stem cell therapy treatment.”
He said the company was growing at a rate of 70 percent in terms of its client base, and also registered 30 percent growth in its net profit last year.

(…) Since 2006, according to NECBB records, the number of banked units used in transplants has doubled. The company attributes this increase in cord blood usage to the ever evolving research surrounding cord blood stem cells.

“We have always reminded parents that stem cell therapies are advancing very quickly and it is difficult to know what the possibilities are. The fact that more parents are using cells they stored suggests that the scope of treatments available is encouraging,” said Dr. David Matzilevich, Chief Scientific Officer of NECBB. “We are confident that the cells found in cord blood are extremely valuable and will only prove to be more so as time goes on.”

Over 80 diseases can be treated with the use of cord blood, including some types of juvenile diabetes and chronic leukemia. Cord blood collection poses no threat to the baby and therefore, circumvents the ethical issues of embryonic stem cells. The cells are taken from the cord after it is cut from the mother and baby.

For over 20 years, cord blood transplants have produced positive results. In 1988, a three-year- old girl received a cord blood transplant to treat Fanconi’s anemia. In 1991, another child was treated for myelogenous leukemia with cord blood stem cells and the transplant was a success. Since then, two-thirds of cord blood transplants performed have been for malignant conditions and overall have shown a high rate of success. The rising numbers of transplants reported by NECBB proves further that the achievements of cord blood banking will only grow (…)

from http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/165571.php

When others of her age played with dolls, eight-year-old Thamirabharani was taking blood transfusions.
Born with thalassaemia, she has, however, found hope. She was detected with the disease when she was a year and a half and has been undergoing regular blood transfusions since.

Haematologist Revathy Raj and his team from Apollo Gleneagles hospital in Chennai gave a new lease of life to the little girl from Coimbatore through stem cell transplantation. Doctors said she is now fully cured and has not needed a single transfusion since March.

Doctors claimed this is the first success story in India using the stem cells from the umbilical cord blood of a sibling.
When her father Senthil Kumar, a carpenter, came to know of stem cell transfusion and Life Cell and its process of banking stem cells from umbilical cord blood, they decided to have another child.

When Thamirabharani was two years old, her mother conceived again but the foetus was also diagnosed with Thalassae-mia. They had it terminated and tried again.
During the second attempt, doctors found the foetus was a Thalassaemia carrier but not affected by it. They collected the blood from the umbilical cord, cultivated the stem cells during delivery of the baby boy and asked Life Cell to preserve it for a year.

In March, Raj and his team started working on the transplantation process.
“The first step was to destroy all the existing bone marrow cells using chemotherapy. Next came transplanting stem cells from the donor,” said Raj.

from http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/454758.aspx

Italy is ranked among the top countries in Europe for the number of bone marrow transplants performed. This is one of the elements that emerged on the first day of the 3rd GITMO conference (Italian group for bone marrow transplants), which began today in Florence.

Italy plays a leading role for bone marrow transplants, said a statement, demonstrated by the fact that our country is one of the top contributors to the number of transplants performed in Europe. The European Bone Marrow Transplant Group (EMBT) collects and stores data regarding transplants performed in various countries, and Italy is ranked 3rd/4th place for the total number of transplants it performs. This is an indication of the important work performed in Italy by GITMO and demonstrates that Italian transplant centers make use of top-level expertise and technology.

This is encouraging data because it opens up possibilities for the future, with important implications for patients suffering from neoplastic diseases, for which stem cells could play a key role in future treatments.

The procedure of stem cell transplants is very invasive for the patient and not all individuals are able to adequately tolerate the procedure, especially older patients. In the past, it was not possible to perform a transplant in an individual over the age of 40, then the age was raised to 50, while today 60 could be an important objective. In the past 10 years, transplant technologies for family and non-family donors have been developed with the use of so-called reduced intensity transplants, meaning a transplant that uses technology to make the procedure tolerable for patients who are not able to undergo the traditional procedure.

Initially, this technique developed slowly, while today many transplant centers have adopted the procedure, which has substantially increased the number of people who are eligible to receive this type of treatment. For some diseases, like acute myeloid leukemia, donor stem cell transplants represent our most promising weapon, and since these diseases are most common in elderly individuals, in cases where the patient is in good condition and they are under 60 years old, it is possible to use this type of treatment.

Future prospects. Today stem cells can be obtained from various sources. While in the past family donors were used, now the use of non-family donors has become more widespread thanks to international donor banks. Furthermore, alternative sources are available, like umbilical cord stem cells, which have been collected in many EU and non-EU countries for about 15 years in special umbilical cord blood banks. They are also present in Italy and this expands the offer and possibility to quickly find a source of stem cells to be used in transplants.

The extensive research on stem cells has revolutionised the way life-threatening diseases like leukaemia and aplastic anaemia can be treated.
But there are several steps before these diseases can be treated using stem cells.

To begin with, the Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA)-typing of the patient is done. Doctors then get into the process of finding a matched donor from the computerised list made available to them by National Marrow Donor Programme (NMDP), U.S., and New York Cord Blood Bank.
If registration of potential bone marrow donors has been in place for a long time, the emergence of a number of cord blood banks, both public and private, which store the stem cells has gone a long way in helping doctors.

Finding a match is just the first step. However, it takes at least three months to procure matched bone-marrow stem cells. It takes just two weeks in the case of cord blood stem cells.
The three-month waiting period in the case of bone marrow arises as locating the matched donor very often becomes difficult.

It requires a minimum of one to three working days to import the stem cells once the match has been found.
“We transfuse blood and platelets to aplastic anaemia patients to sustain them till such time matched stem cells are located, procured and transplanted,” said Dr. Revathy Raj, Consultant Paediatric Haemato Oncologist, Apollo Speciality Hospital, Chennai. “In the case of leukaemia, patients undergo a cycle of chemotherapy in the interim period.”

An important point worthy of mention is that the bone marrow donor is not required to come to the hospital where the patient is, but rather could go to a nearest hospital in the U.S. to donate his stem cells.
In India there are not enough registered bone marrow donors, nor are there proper facilities to harvest bone marrow. Hence the bone marrow cells have to be obtained from organisations like NMDP. The lack of adequate number of donors also results in very slim chances of finding a match in India.

India fares better in the case of cord blood banks. India has two public banks — Reliance in Mumbai and Jeevan Stem Cell Bank in Chennai. But even these banks have only a handful of units. This makes the chances of finding a match very remote.
Though there are a good number of private cord blood banks in the country, they are of little use to the public. Stem cells banked in these places are made available only to the immediate relative of the donor.

from The Hindu