This breakthrough could dramatically speed up the discovery of improved treatments for conditions such as diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, stroke, and spinal cord injury.
In laboratory experiments, the research team successfully turned the embryonic-like stem cells into liver cells. According to Stephen Grant, senior vice president of Cord Blood Registry (CBR), “the discovery provides added value to the investment made by the estimated 300,000 families that have opted to cryogenically preserve their newborns’ cord blood for current and emerging uses.”
Earlier this year the Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommended, and Senate Bill SB2039 requires, that all pregnant women are educated on the value of saving their baby’s cord blood at birth. Age-old medical practice is to discard cord blood as biological waste without knowledge or consent of the mother as to its potential future value.
With four million annual births in the US, the newly discovered cells, named “cord-blood-derived embryonic-like stem cells” or CBEs, are significant in that they may enable researchers and physicians to harness the potential of embryonic stem cells without the ethical objections.
In the past few months, CBR has retrieved cord blood units for newborns needing to use their own cryopreserved sample for stem cell infusions in an effort to repair damage from anoxia and traumatic brain injury. Another newborn stem cell infusion is scheduled for October as therapy for a child with cerebral palsy. These treatments are believed to be the first of their kind in the US.