Cord blood stem cells: A new hope to cure sick children
Cord blood stem cells: A new hope to cure sick children
Scientists are continually making efforts to find the solution to every problem. It is a result of their efforts that every disease that was considered fatal has a cure. According to a recent study, it has been found out that cord blood stem cells can also be used to cure health problems of children. Researchers are hoping that this study can possibly improve the quality of life of children suffering from damaged nervous system. Cells are obtained from the umbilical cord blood. Umbilical cord is a connection pipe from mother to the baby through which mother supplies food to the baby during pregnancy. Cells are collected at the time of birth and the procedure followed is very painless.
Earlier doctors used to throw away the umbilical cord as a medical waste. Once its importance was known, doctors started the practice of umbilical cord blood collection and it is very common these days. Today, parents want surgeons to store stem cells in case their child might suffer from a disease or accident in the later stage. Stem cells have the capability to develop into other cells or tissue. The cells replace the damaged cells and start performing their duties. It is being anticipated that these cells will further heal many other disabilities such as hearing, walking and eyesight problems in children having damaged nervous system.
Joanne Kurtzberg is the chief of Blood and Marrow Transplantation Center at the University of Duke. Dr. Kurtzberg has been doing research on cord blood cells for about thirty years. The study involves finding out whether stem cells from cord blood can cure patients or not and if they can then which ones. The team conducted their research on infants suffering from hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy. Hypoxic means low level of oxygen in the body cells and organs. The word ischemic implies that very low amount of blood reaches the organs. Encephalopathy is a condition when the brain does not incur normal development.
There may be many cases when stem cells may help. A baby can get injured in the uterus during birth or later. This might have an effect on normal breathing or daily routine activities. The study was carried out on cerebral palsy patients. These were provided with umbilical cord stem cells at different times. They were also given placebos that detect a disease which does not require stem cells for its cure. Repeated checks were made to find out whether they are improving in condition or not. Due to huge financial expense being incurred for this, it is somehow difficult to implement this research on these severely affected children. This is however not going to stop scientists from doing further researches.