Cord Blood Stem Cell Can Cure For Diabetes?

Cord blood stem cell transplant is becoming increasingly important for treatment of life-threatening diseases and debilitating conditions. Umbilical cord blood stem cells are less prone to rejection than bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cells.

A team of South Korean researchers, headed by Prof. Kang Kyung-sun of Seoul National University, has successfully grown pancreatic beta cells from umbilical cord blood stem cells of newborn babies. The stem cells are able to secrete insulin, the hormone necessary for treatment of diabetes. The ability of cord blood stem cells to differentiate, or change into other types of cells in the body is a new discovery that holds great promise for improving the treatment of some of the most common diseases including diabetes. This achievement would be highlighted by The Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, the U.S.-based weekly, that documents breakthrough papers in biotechnology.

Similar breakthroughs have been achieved by scientists throughout the world. Researchers at the University of Newcastle, in Dublin, produced a ‘mini liver' from cord blood stem cells. The technique will be developed to create a full-sized, fully functioning liver. Tissues from mini-livers will be used to test new drugs. Researchers are hopeful that within five years, pieces of the tissue can be used to repair damaged livers and within 15 years, actual liver transplants may be done using lab-grown livers made from cord blood. This is a significant achievement that can potentially develop treatments for liver diseases.

Autologous Stem Cell Transplant (AutoSCT)

autologous stem cell transplant, stem cells from the patient's own marrow are "harvested," stored and then returned to the body (engrafted) after the patient receives high doses of chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy conditioning therapy.

Sometimes, the portion of marrow is also purged of cancer cells before being returned to the patient.

The goal of transplant therapy is to restore or rescue hematologic and immunologic function following high dose therapy.

The stem cells are of a type that can develop into the full range of blood and immune cells.

Typically autologous transplants are done in four phases:
1. Induction phase - conventional doses of chemo are used to reduce disease.
2. Mobilization/harvesting phase - use of growth factors or other treatments that leads to the proliferation and mobilization of stem cells from the bone marrow into the bloodstream. These cells are then harvested using a process called apheresis in order to replace the stem cells that will be ablated (killed) during the conditioning phase of treatment.

"The process of apheresis involves removal of whole blood from a patient or donor. Within an instrument that is essentially designed as a centrifuge, the components of whole blood are separated. One of the separated portions is then withdrawn and the remaining components are retransfused into the patient or donor."

3. Conditioning phase - high-dose therapy that wipes out or "conditions" the immune system and bone marrow in preparation for the stem cells harvested previously. This phase might include Total Body Irradiation (TBI), and more recently, high dose bexxar - an investigational alternative to TBI.


4. Engraftment phase - the stem cells are given back to the patient to reconstitute the immune system. Sometimes purging techniques are used to clean the stem cells of residual tumor cells prior to engraftment, or shortly after.

"Approximately two to four weeks after your transplant you can expect to see signs of your bone marrow “engrafting” or beginning to grow. The first sign of this is the production of white blood cells. Platelets often take a little longer to begin developing. Once you have “engrafted” and your condition is stable, you will be discharged from the hospital." - cancer.med.umich.edu

Adult stem cells have many advantages compare to Embryonic stem cell

In adults, stem cells are within various tissues and organs, including bone marrow, liver, epidermis, retina, skeletal muscle, intestine, brain, dental pulp, etc. Neural stem cells have even been removed from areas of the brain of cadavers as late as twenty hours following death.

Stem cell research with embryonic stem cells has garnered absolutely no evidence of any promising results. None. Zero. Nada. One must wonder what people like Michael J. Fox and others are so up in arms about. There is a Hollywood element to this story that stirs up emotion and rhetoric but has no sustenance. We all feel sorry for Michael J. Fox as he shakes from the effects of Parkinson’s disease, but he won’t find a cure with embryonic stem cells. He needs to turn his attention to adult stem cells.

Embryonic stem cell disadvantages are many: 1) difficult to differentiate uniformly and homogeneously into a target tissue, 2) immunogenic – ES cells from a random embryo death are likely to be rejected, 3) tumorigenic – they tend to form tumors and promote tumor growth, 4) destruction of human life.

Adult stem cells, however, have many advantages, and NONE of the disadvantages of embryonic stem cells: 1) adult stem cells from bone marrow and umbilical cords are already specialized and transplantation is simpler. In other words, the new host does not reject them. 2) relative ease of harvesting, 3) non-tumorigenic – they don’t form tumors, and 4) they do no harm to the donor.

Here is just a sampling of the success that adult stem cells have provided:
1) Spinal cord injury repair and regeneration of the nerves
2) Leukemia remission and cures
3) Krabbe’s Leukodystrophy – a rare degenerative enzyme disorder of the nervous system – patient’s treated with adult stem cells are cured and thriving several years after the transplant
4) Parkinson’s disease – (someone please alert Michael J. Fox to this!) Doctors have injected adult neural stem cells into the brain of Parkinson’s disease patients and the symptoms (extreme shaking) disappeared completely. Patients are cured! Yes, cured! Why the national media pays no attention to this is beyond me.

Although the topic has not been in the spotlight lately, it lingers. It will resurface again. When it does, let’s all be voices of reason and truth – promote the continued success and research of adult stem cells and stop wasting money on embryonic stem cells.