A new type of cell discovered in umbilical-cord blood promises to overcome the ethical and legal dilemmas surrounding the use of embryonic stem cells. International researchers who discovered the cells - called cord-blood-derived-embryonic-like stem cells, or CBEs - have found a way to mass produce them.
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In recent years, cord blood transplants, peripheral blood stem cell transplants and bone marrow transplants have become mainstream treatments for patients with certain life-threatening blood, genetic or immune system disorders.
They offer hope of remission or cure for people with diseases such as leukemia, lymphoma, multiple myeloma, severe aplastic anemia, severe combined immunodeficiency, Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome, thalassemia major and sickle cell disease.
All these diseases have one thing in common. Either the disease or the treatment causes problems with the blood cells.
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The US-based Cryo-Cell International (CCI), a family cord blood bank, has announced that it has processed and cryogenically preserved cord blood stem cells for over 100,000 clients and the company believes that it is the first and only family cord blood bank in the world to achieve this milestone.
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A sample of umbilical cord blood from the Shanghai Stem Cell Bank is expected to be escorted to Singapore to help a middle-aged woman with leukemia.
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South Africa’s first state-of-the-art human stem cell bank (from cord blood) opens in Cape Town early next month.
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A Korean husband-and-wife scientist team has made headway in adult stem cell research by discovering a gene in charge of differentiating the parent cells in human bodies.
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Impressive progress has been made in the treatment of haemophilia using gene therapy.
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Children with leukaemia are more likely to survive if their chemotherapy is topped up with an injection of blood stem cells.
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Progress in gene therapy to treat haemophilia has been impressive in the past few years. Gene therapy has been used to successfully treat haemophilia in dogs.
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Scientists from the Medical College of Georgia and the University of South Florida in Tampa used human cord blood, which is rich in stem cells, to treat rats who had been given a stroke. By using mannitol, a drug that makes it easier for chemicals to reach the brain, the scientists were able to reduce the damage by 40 percent and the animals were able to return to 70 percent function, said lead author Cesario V. Borlongan, a neuroscientist at MCG and the Augusta Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Centers.
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