Treating Disease With Stem Cells Essay, Research Paper

Treating Disease with Stem Cells

This article was written by Dr. Gregory Hale, professor of Pediatricss at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, in response to inquiries posed by Scientific American Magazine sing the intervention of certain diseases with cord blood root cells. There is some extra information provided by Viacord, a medical service company that provides private household cord blood banking, processing, and research. Dr. Hale discussed the advantages of cord blood root cell grafts, the consequences of several grafts, every bit good as the research that on-going in the field of root cell organ transplant.

The blood that remains in the human umbilical cord blood following birth contains a rich beginning of haematopoietic primogenitor cells known as? root cells. ? These root cells are the maestro cells of the blood. They divide to do new ruddy cells that supply O, white blood cells that fight disease and infection, and thrombocytes that facilitate mending. Doctors now have three beginnings of root cells available to them: bone marrow, mobilized bone marrow or peripheral blood, and umbilical cord blood. Bone marrow has traditionally been used as a beginning of root cells, but research is turn outing that cord blood may be an first-class alternate beginning. Cord blood can be utilized for the intervention of many diseases, including leukaemia, reaping hook cell anaemia, and Hodgkin? s disease. The first successful cord blood graft took topographic point in 1988 when a newborn? s cord blood was used in a life salvaging root cell graft for her older brother who had Fanconi anaemia.

Since so, there has been much research into the advantages of cord blood root cells. Cord blood is much more readily available and poses no giver hazard. The blood is merely collected from the placenta and umbilical cord after the babe is born and stored. The potency of spread outing the cultural diverseness of the donor pool is greatly increased, since minorities are well under-represented in bone marrow graft pools. Cord blood root cells may besides present less hazard of graft-versus-host upset, or GVHD, than root cells from bone marrow. GVHD occurs when the giver? s immune cells make antibodies against the host? s tissues, ensuing in serious complications.

In the last 10 old ages, several surveies of cord blood grafts have taken topographic point and their consequences have been published in scientific discipline and medical diaries. In 1996, the New England Journal of Medicine reported the consequences of 25 back-to-back cord blood organ transplants from August 1993 to November 1995 by Dr. Joanne Kurtzberg at Duke University. After bone marrow hunts were unsuccessful for 17 patients, cord blood was collected from unrelated givers at the New York Blood Center. Nineteen patients had malignant diseases and four had nonmalignant conditions. The patients? mean age was seven old ages and the mean weight was 19.4 kgs. Twenty cord blood units were somewhat HLA-mismatched and one was HLA-identical. The HLA, or Human Leukocyte Antigen, induces the formation of antibodies because it is recognized by the immune system as a menace. Engraftment was successful in 23 of 25 patients, and merely two patients had terrible graft-versus-host disease. In contrast, bone marrow grafts in kids have a 30 per centum incidence of graft-versus-host-disease. Seven of the patients with malignant disease and 6 with nonmalignant conditions were alive one twelvemonth after organ transplant. The study concluded that? HLA-mismatched cord blood is an alternate beginning of root cells for organ transplant in kids. ?

In another survey by Dr. John Wagner at the University of Minne

sota Hospital, 13 patients with malignant leukaemia diseases and five with nonmalignant conditions received cord blood grafts between July 1994 and December 1995. The mean age of these patients was 2.7 old ages and the mean weight was 15.4 kgs. Seven patients received HLA-matched blood and 11 received changing grades of HLA-mismatched transplants. Six months after organ transplant, 65 per centum of the patients were alive and merely two developed terrible graft-versus-host disease. The writers stated that the benefits of cord blood organ transplant included the? low rate of graft-versus-host disease, rapid handiness of blood, lessened giver hazard, and a low hazard of catching infections such as CMV and Epstein Barr virus. ?

Even with these and other successful organ transplants, there are still inquiries to be answered. For illustration, what is the minimum cell dose? Can an grownup receiver be efficaciously transplanted? Because the volume of umbilical blood collected at birth is between 80 and 100 millilitres, the bulk of grafts have been paediatric instances. Bone marrow, on the other manus, gives the physician a big supply of root cells. Research workers are now seeking methods to increase the figure of cord blood cells for usage in larger grownup patients.

Further basic scientific discipline and clinical research will reply these and other quandary such as the transplant versus leukaemia consequence, how long cord blood can be preserved and utilized, and the grade of graft-versus-host disease. There is extra research traveling on now to look into the feasibleness of infixing cistrons into cord blood stems cells and utilizing them for cistron therapy. The possibilities have sparked increased involvement into physicians and scientists worldwide.

With this involvement comes the demand for both private household and public cord blood Bankss. The National Institutes of Health ( NIH ) funded the first giver cord blood set and is besides funding two more in California. Fortunately, the figure of insurance companies who will pay for cord blood storage is increasing. The $ 1,500 for the initial service and $ 95 per twelvemonth storage fee saves the insurance company 1000s of dollars compared to a bone marrow crop, which costs between $ 5,000 and $ 10,000, or an unrelated giver? s bone marrow which can be up to $ 30,000.

Harmonizing to Dr. Hale, the hereafter holds great promise for the usage of cord blood root cells. The consequences of these surveies must be compared with the awaited high mortality rate without organ transplant. The figure of cord blood grafts is expected to increase significantly in the close hereafter and farther research will go on to better cognition and increase endurance rates.

Diseases that are presently treatable with Stem Cells* :

Malignant Diseases

? Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

? Acute myeloblastic leukaemia

? Chronic myelogenous leukaemia

? Hodgkin? s disease

? Multiple myeloma

? Non-Hodgkin? s lymphoma

Nonmalignant Diseases

? Aplastic anaemia

? Sickle cell anaemia

? Osteopertrosis

? Globoid cell leukodystrophy

? Severe combined immunodeficiency

? Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome

? X-linked lymphoproliferative syndrome

? Hunter? s syndrome

? Hurler? s syndrome

? Lesch Nyhan syndrome

? Beta thalassaemia

*Scientific American, January 1998

Bibliography

Gregory Hale, Ph.D.

Scientific American Magazine Online

January 1998

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