“The opportunity to study the origin of this leukemia arose from the case of a 5-month-old baby diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia at the Hospital Niño Jesús in Madrid,” explains Pablo Menéndez, ICREA professor at the University of Barcelona and the Josep Carreras Institute. “The parents, who had preserved the umbilical cord blood, opened a … Read more
A total of 927 surviving children were evaluated with a screening tool used to assess risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in toddlers, known as the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers, Revised with Follow-Up. Proportions of children scoring with medium-to-high risk for ASD did not differ significantly for both groups: 45 of 486 in … Read more
The study included nearly 1,000 full-term and near-term infants. Researchers compared the treatment, known as umbilical cord milking, to early clamping and cutting of the cord—undertaken so resuscitation efforts can begin as soon as possible. The researchers conducted the current study in response to concerns raised by an earlier study suggesting that umbilical cord milking … Read more
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Omisirge (omidubicel-onlv), a substantially modified allogeneic cord blood-based cell therapy, to cut the risk of infection in patients with blood cancer following a myeloablative treatment, such as radiation or chemotherapy. Omisirge is administered as a single, patient-specific intravenous dose for blood cancer patients ≥12 years to hasten recovery … Read more
These questions are difficult to answer, since such research requires blood samples from the baby before the diagnosis, something that is impossible in the vast majority of cases. However, in this particular case, the existence of a frozen umbilical cord sample allowed researchers to separate different populations of blood cells at birth and to study … Read more
Parents must use a private biobank, which charges between £550 and £3,000 for freezing a baby’s umbilical cord blood. On top of this, parents must pay an annual storage fee of over £100 to keep samples frozen. Private biobanks market their umbilical cord blood banking services to expectant parents as an investment in protecting their … Read more
Murry highlighted that transforming stem cells into iPSCs requires highly trained stem cell scientists and that iPSCs can also be created from adult blood or skin cells, meaning that cord blood banking is unnecessary. Merli, who uses stem cell therapy to treat his patients, says many of the conditions he treats do not require autologous … Read more
Murry says the list is based on claims by people in the late 1990s that these cells have the plasticity to become almost any type of cell in the body—claims that have been “very rigorously disproven.” He said that umbilical cord blood contains adult stem cells, which limits the types of cells they can become—hematopoietic … Read more
The investigation also found that Cells4Life markets its services on questionable evidence published in the Journal of Stem Cells Research, Development & Therapy. Although the journal claims to operate a peer-review process, the research article referenced by Cells4Life was published in the journal just 17 days after receipt—a timescale far shorter than the 12-14 weeks … Read more
“There is deep untapped potential in using CD34-negative HSCs in transplantation,” says Asma Al-Amoodi, a postdoc in Merzaban’s lab. Along with her colleagues, she sets out to augment their therapeutic value. The researchers first characterized the different populations of HSCs found in cord blood and noticed that CD34-negative cells were particularly lacking in sialyl Lewis … Read more