[Nanette]

'nature's first stem cell transplant'

by Nanette on Fri May 28, 2010 3:27 pm

Dunno if you guys had seen this yet..... interesting!

http://sify.com/news/early-umbilical-cord-clamping-may-interrupt-nature-s-first-stem-cell-transplant-news-international-kfzm4ibcbei.html

"The practice of clamping the umbilical cord just after birth should be delayed just a few minutes longer, urge researchers at the University of South Florida's Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair.

Delaying clamping the umbilical cord for a slightly longer period of time allows more umbilical cord blood volume to transfer from mother to infant and, with that critical period extended, many good physiological "gifts" are transferred through 'nature's first stem cell transplant' occurring at birth, they said."

[Ricardo]

Re: 'nature's first stem cell transplant'

by Ricardo on Fri May 28, 2010 10:30 pm

That definitely is interesting, Nanette. Thanks for sharing the link.

Actually, I was reading a bit about this lately. Using umbilical cord blood as a treatment for multiple myeloma and many other cancers is a very active subject of research.

Just check out this link - It's a list of clinical trials. There are about 25 of them. All of them are currently recruiting patients. And almost all of them involve testing cord blood as a treatment for multiple myeloma (and, usually, other cancers as well).

I don't know what sort of success these kinds of trials have shown so far. But it certainly seems to be a treatment approach that is sparking a lot of interest.

[Matt]

Re: 'nature's first stem cell transplant'

by Matt on Sat May 29, 2010 8:56 pm

Last fall I spoke with a researcher at Tufts about transplants using cord blood. He told me that the biggest challenge is that cord blood only provides 10% of the amount of stem cells normally harvested for an auto or allo transplant. A transplant using cord blood would require a four to six week hospital stay as you waited for the stem cells to graft.