Current research into cord blood stem cells
*Customers should be aware that by law in Australia your child’s cord blood is only available for autologous use for haematopoietic reconstitution.
Umbilical cord blood is the subject of a significant amount of scientific research in Australia and internationally. Here is what stem cell scientists are currently reporting in peer reviewed journals (references are listed below):
Dr Harris and Dr Rodger report that “The identification and isolation of the populations of pluripotent stem cells within cord blood represents a scientific breakthrough that could potentially impact every field of medicine, via their use in regenerative medicine. Thus, CB stem cells are amenable to treatment of a wide variety of diseases including cardiovascular, hepatic, ophthalmic, orthopaedic, neurological and endocrine diseases.” 4
Dr Hutson and colleagues “support previous reports that cells capable of differentiating into bone-forming osteoblasts exist in full-term umbilical cord blood”. 5
Dr Shmidt and colleagues reported “the successful in vitro engineering and maturation of biologically active heart valve leaflets using umbilical cords as the only prenatal cell source.” 6
Dr Korbling and colleagues report that “preliminary data suggest umbilical cord blood derived tissue specific cells generated in the liver, pancreas, CNS and endothelium.” 7
Dr Denner and colleagues “showed that several primitive lineages of cord blood-derived stem cells could be engineered to produce insulin.” 8
Dr Li and colleagues’ “observations suggest potential [of cord blood stem cells] as an alternative to hepatocyte transplantation for cellular therapy of liver failure.” 9
Dr Yu and colleagues said “A growing number of studies highlight the potential of systemic delivery of HUCB cells as a novel therapeutic approach for stroke“. 10
Dr Cho and colleagues “suggest that umbilical cord blood neurally induced progenitor cells might be a therapeutic resource to repair damaged spinal cords.” 11
Dr Koike and colleagues have reported that “that Cord blood cells can differentiate into Retinal Nerve Cells”. 12
4. David Harris and Ian Rogers. (2008) Umbilical Cord Blood: a unique source of pluripotent stem cells for regenerative medicine. Current Stem Cell Research and Therapy 2(4):301-9
5. Hutson EL, Boyer S, Genever PG. (2005) Rapid isolation, expansion and differentiation of osteoprogenitors from full-term cord blood. Tissue Engineering 11(9-10):1407-20
6. Schmidt D, Mol A, Odermatt B, Neunschwander S, Breymann C, Gossi M, Genoni M, Zund G and Hoerstrup S. (2006). Engineering of biologically active living heart valve leaflets using human umbilical cord derived progenitor cells. Tissue Engineering 12(11):3223-3232
7. Korbling M, Robinson S, Estrov Z, Champlin R and Shpall E. (2005) Umbilical cord blood derived cells for tissue repair. Cytotherapy 7(3):258-261
8. Denner L, Bodenburg Y, Zhao J, Howe M, Cappo J, Tilton R, Copland J, Forraz N McGuckin C and Urban R. (2007) Direct engineering of umbilical cord blood stem cells to produce C-peptide and insulin. Cell Proliferation 40(3):367-80.
9. Li S, Sun Z, Lu G, Guo X, Zhang Y, Yu W, Wang W, Ma X. (2009). Microencapsulated UCB cells repair hepatic injury by intraperitoneal transplantation. Cytotherapy 11(4):1-9.
10. Yu G, Borlongan C, Stahl C, Hess D, Ou Y, Kaneko Y, Yu S, Yang T, Fang L and Xie X. (2009). Sytemic deliver of umbilical cord blood cells for stroke therapy: a review. Restorative and Neurology and Neuroscience 27(1):41-54.
11. Cho S, Yang M, Yim S, Park J, Eom Y, Jang I, Kim H, Park J, Kim H, Lee B, Park C, Kim Y. (2008) Neurally Induced umbilical cord blood cells modestly repair injured spinal cords. Neuroreports 19(13):258-61
12. Koike N, Adachi Y, Minamino K, Iwasaki M, Nakano K, Koike Y, Yamada H, Mukaide H, Shigematsu A, Mizokami T, Matsumura M, Ikehara S. (2007). Human cord blood cells can differentiate into retinal nerve cells. Acta Neurology Exp 67(4):359-65.
More information on referenced papers
