Mary Joseph noted that some patients with metastatic cancer had a new palpable swelling or nodule in their umbilicus. She did the noble deed of reporting this to Mayo, who fairly evidently hadn’t noted it himself. He went on to rather ignominiously publish these findings under his own name, without giving due credit to his esteemed colleague. It was only after the deaths of Dempsey and Mayo—both in 1939—that another doctor, Hamilton Bailey, rightly named the finding Sister Mary Joseph’s nodule.
The nodule is firm, of variable coloring, and actually arises from spread of the cancer to the umbilical tissue. It’s not seen as commonly these days, since more cancers are now diagnosed earlier before extensive spreading occurs.
Other signs can be observed in the navel that have a footing in mythology. One example allows us to draw a connection between the liver and the umbilicus.
The skin around the navel has beds of superficial veins that feed back towards the deeper circulation. They actually drain blood into the hepatic portal vein, a large vessel that is heading into the liver, chock-full of nutrients absorbed from the gut.
Professor Hass’ research group from the Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics has been working on mesenchymal stem cells for years and has published on their special regenerative properties and effects in damaged and pathophysiological tissues. Using a special technology, Professor Hass was able to isolate mesenchymal stem cells from umbilical cord tissue and multiply them sufficiently in cell culture so that they could then be used for therapy.
The team assumes that such a therapy must be repeated at regular intervals in order to be successful long term, in the case of chronically progressive, often therapy-resistant pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).
One of the most common causes of disability or death in newborns is a lack of oxygen or blood flow in the brain during labor or delivery.
The condition, known as hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), can result in severe brain damage, which is why researchers at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital (UH Rainbow) are studying the condition to evaluate how HIE is treated and develop new, more effective options.
HIE, usually caused by complications with the umbilical cord, uterine tearing, blood circulation problems in the placenta and more, can result in lifelong disabilities. Currently, the only treatment for HIE is hypothermia, or lowering the infant’s body temperature to reduce the metabolic rate and inflammation in the brain.
But according to new research from Case Western Reserve and UH Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital published in Pediatric Research, this approach doesn’t reverse brain damage caused by HIE.
“Hypothermia reduces the brain injury, but does not cure the baby,” said senior author Cynthia Bearer, MD, Ph.D., professor at the School of Medicine and chief of Neonatology at UH Rainbow. “We are studying why the HIE injury remains after hypothermia because it did not reverse the damage. It’s a common condition that affects between 1 and 3 out of every 1,000 infants.”
During infant brain development, many processes rely on the function of lipid rafts—components of cell membranes that act as messengers to bring proteins together and signal cell behavior. The research team believed that, because lipid rafts play a critical role in brain development, they may also hold the answer to reverse brain damage caused by HIE.
Previous research has demonstrated that UCB contains cytokines and growth factors, components that are integral to bone consolidation and tissue repair.
“This current study addresses the unmet need for a uniform quality control framework to determine clinical suitability and safety of cord blood allografts,” said Christopher D. Jones, CEO of Burst Biologics and a corresponding author of the paper. “This is the first known published report enumerating the tests to address identity, purity, safety and potency for a UCB sourced allograft.”
The study reports on exosome-based therapy, which may be the next quantum leap in regenerative medicine, a field focused on replacing or regenerating human cells, tissue or organs, to restore or establish normal function. The published article identifies a unique liaison among the UCB-sourced allograft, host mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and their secreted exosomes that influences tissue regeneration in vivo.
“Based on these findings, clinical suitability of cord blood allografts must account for the non-cellular components while evaluating their promising role in tissue regeneration,” stated Jones. “This study brings us one step closer to optimizing the bounds of regenerative medicine.”
In the study, the identity of BioBurst Rejuv was established by use of flow cytometry, a mass spectrometry-based proteomic approach and protein multiplexing testing. Microbiological screenings, graft-versus-host disease testing, and endotoxin values were used to assess safety and purity.
Going forward, the research team plans to study the long term neurodevelopmental outcomes of preterm neonates who received DCC at birth.
Preterm birth is a leading cause of death among children under the age of five, with low resource countries facing the greatest challenge. But before solutions can be tested, researchers first need to be able to accurately measure the problem at a population level. This has been particularly difficult in countries where pregnant women don’t have routine access to ultrasound technology to determine gestational age.
New research published in eLife shows that a mathematical model developed in Canada could help. The model, developed with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, relies on simple blood tests done soon after birth, as well as birth weight and sex.
“We’re using metabolic fingerprints—unique patterns in specific molecules found in the blood—to help estimate gestational age,” said senior author Dr. Kumanan Wilson, an internal medicine specialist and senior scientist at The Ottawa Hospital and professor at the University of Ottawa. “This could be crucial to global efforts to reduce preterm birth and improve newborn health.”
Dr. Wilson developed the model together with Dr. Steven Hawken, a scientist and big data expert at The Ottawa Hospital and assistant professor at the University of Ottawa. After validating the model using Canadian data, they teamed up with researchers from Bangladesh to try it in another setting.
The team enrolled more than 1,000 pregnant women in the study from Matlab, a research field station of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh. The women received regular ultrasounds as a gold standard reference for gestational age. Soon after birth, a few drops of newborn blood were collected from either a heel prick or the umbilical cord. The blood samples were sent to Newborn Screening Ontario in Ottawa, Canada for testing and the data was analyzed at The Ottawa Hospital.
With the heel prick blood samples, the mathematical model could accurately estimate gestational age to within two weeks of the ultrasound-validated age 94 percent of the time. Using the cord blood samples, the model was accurate to within two weeks 90 percent of the time.