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Stem Cell News and Research

More Researchers See Cord Blood's Potential

By Anne Geggis
March 18, 2007
Daytona Beach News Online Journal

It sounds like a science-fiction fantasy come true. The idea that a few ounces of fluid leaking from an umbilical cord at birth could mean the difference between life and death seems unreal, yet the stem cells found in cord blood have shown the potential to regenerate damaged body tissue and treat dozens of diseases affecting millions of Americans, including diabetes and Alzheimer's.

But whether umbilical cord stem cells can fulfill such promise -- and sidestep the controversies around the use of the embryonic stem cells, taken from the union of an egg and sperm -- remains an open question. Interest in exploring that potential has never been greater.

Gov. Charlie Crist gave research on these stem cells a boost with an announcement that he would seek $20 million in research funding. Announcements in the last six months that umbilical cord stem cells have been used to generate a "mini-liver" and human lung cells have raised their profile among scientists, too.

"Much of what the public hears about on the street are embryonic stem cells, but cord blood stem cells can and are helping to treat people right now," said Colin McGuckin, a researcher at the Newcastle University in Scotland who was part of the team that grew liver tissue out of umbilical cord stem cells. Embryonic stem cells are more widely known, in part because their use for study raises ethical and moral questions about the onset of life. Despite the controversy, they remained attractive to scientists who believed cells taken from an embryo were more flexible, because the embryo eventually develops into a whole human.

But that isn't necessarily so, said Paul Sanberg, a neuroscientist at the University of South Florida who's used umbilical cord stem cells to contain rats' stroke damage.

"We're finding that (in umbilical cord stem cells) there are more similarities with embryonic stem cells than previously thought," said Sanberg, director of the Center for Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair at the College of Medicine in Tampa.

Umbilical cord cells could, in theory, have the same potential as embryonic stem cells, said Dr. Richard G. Fessler, professor and chief of the neurosurgery section at the University of Chicago and part of a University of Florida team that injected fetal cells into a damaged human spinal cord to prevent further damage.

"We just don't know yet," he said.

Though some foreign doctors already are using umbilical cord stem cells in some treatments, scientists in this country are awaiting approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Human trials could begin here within the next year or two, South Florida's Sanberg said.

In the meantime, researchers need more women to publicly donate their umbilical cord stem cells. It's a challenge, considering U.S. laws don't allow payments for human tissue. And the way it stands now, patients have to take the initiative to donate in area hospitals' birthing centers.

The National Marrow Donor Program, which keeps track of the nation's umbilical cord stem cell stores, has more than 55,000 units of umbilical cord stem cells in its registry. Worldwide, about 125,000 units of umbilical cord stem cells are available. Some estimates put the need at more than three times that many. But some doctors are unaware that umbilical cord stem cells can be donated even at hospitals without collection facilities. Cryobanks International Inc., a stem cell bank in Altamonte Springs, flies donations in from any hospital in the continental United States at no cost to the donor.

Dr. Gary Fornera, an Ormond Beach obstetrician, said he would urge his patients to donate what would otherwise be wasted.

"It takes about five minutes," said Fornera, who collected his son's umbilical cord stem cells. "I could get them 400 a year."

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