“Latest Stem Cells News”

(…) 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

Italy is the top country in the world for hematopoietic stem cell transplants per million inhabitants, said Alessandro Nanni Costa, the director of the National Transplant Center (CNT), presenting data today in Rome from a study by the Welfare Minister on umbilical cord stem cells.

Italy boasts a registry of 370,000 healthy adults available to donate blood stem cells.

The units of umbilical cord blood preserved in Italian biobanks number 17,503, while in 2008, only 141 were used in Italy or abroad.

The objective is to reach 80,000-90,000 units of umbilical cords preserved from which blood stem cells can be removed for transplants. In Italy there are 18 biobanks for the conservation of umbilical cords that must be reorganize and expanded to reach areas where there are no centers, such as Sardinia.