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Home Tag: "Cord blood"

Tag: Cord blood

20Jan

Autism is today, more clinically referred to as Autism Spectrum Disorder, or ASD, and has been one of the more challenging medical conditions to document and treat. For many centuries, ASD wasn’t even considered a distinct condition and was often misdiagnosed as other conditions entirely, such as some people with ASD being treated for schizophrenia.

The modern approach to ASD is much more flexible, doing away with categorizations or classifications of different types of ASD, and instead, putting those diagnosed on a “spectrum” of different symptoms at different intensities. This way, no one gets put into a classification with recommended treatments that may not be appropriate because they are not finely tuned to individual needs, and instead, try to address categorial requirements.

However, managing ASD continues to be a challenge. There are different ways to approach ASD, including more psychological approaches, such as behavioral therapy, and medications, such as antipsychotics. What there isn’t, with current medical science, is a cure, although stem cell therapy is emerging as a promising new form of treatment. So what is stem cell therapy, and how can it add to the arsenal of ASD treatment?

The Challenge Of ASD

The reason no cure currently exists for ASD is that unlike many illnesses, such as pneumonia, for example, ASD is not a viral or bacteriological infection. In other words, there is no antibiotic, serum, or other treatment that can eliminate an outside agent causing the issue. ASD can be contracted in multiple ways, and even these methods of transmission are still not fully understood.

ASD has a genetic component since parents diagnosed with ASD can give birth to children that are also diagnosed with it. However, ASD also has a prenatal component, where a pregnant woman who contracts an illness during pregnancy, such as rubella, may result in neurological damage to the developing embryo that leads to ASD. There are also theorized to be post-natal factors, though these have yet to be definitively cataloged. What is known, however, is that ASD, once diagnosed, cannot be removed from the patient.

What Stem Cells Do

Stem cell therapy is a relatively new arrival in medical treatment. It uses, as the name suggests, stem cells for treatment. Stem cells are the basic building block of life. If the DNA that comes from the union of the egg and sperm creates the “blueprint” for how to make a human being, the stem cells are the actual materials used to build the person from nothing.

In medical science, stem cells have the nickname “master cell” because they are “pluripotent,” which allows them to do something no other human cell can do. Stem cells start “blank” and can “reprogram” themselves into any cell of the human body. Human cells like skin cells, for example, normally reproduce only new versions of themselves. A heart cell, on the other hand, cannot reproduce at all, and once a heart experiences cellular loss, it can’t grow anymore to replace the lost cells.

Stem cells, on the other hand, are the powerhouse cells that create a human baby. After the sperm has fertilized the egg, the first thing that happens is that more cells are created to create enough “rough material” to grow into a baby. All of those cells are stem cells, and once there are enough of them, the stem cells eventually specialize into the cells that DNA requires, becoming hair cells, eye cells, brain cells, lung cells and others. These pluripotent stem cells are produced in massive quantities by a pregnant mother as a baby grows.

Once the baby is born, however, the need for pluripotent stem cells ceases, and no more are produced. A lesser version of these stem cells is found in all human beings, in the bone marrow, but these cells are limited in their capability, able to become other blood cells, but not every other available cell in the human body.

Stem Cell Therapy & ASD

Stem cell therapy is a recent treatment where harvested stem cells are injected into a patient. If there are affected or damaged neurological cells, the presence of stem cells may repair this damage by forming new, unaffected cells. In children with ASD, this may result in improvements in speech, attention span, or even a reduction in hostility.

However, for stem cell therapy to be effective, stem cells must be compatible with the recipient. This means either using stem cells harvested on request at the birth of the child or using closely related stem cells from the cord blood of a sibling if younger children had stem cells harvested by the ASD patient did not. A final option for harvesting stem cells is to collect them from the bone marrow, but this is a surgical procedure, and thus more invasive.

Stem cell therapy for ASD treatment is not currently available in the United States. The FDA in America authorizes only leukemia treatments using stem cells. Other countries, such as Georgia, do offer stem cell therapy for other disorders, including ASD.

19Jan

Autism Spectrum Disorder, better known clinically as ASD, has taken centuries to be properly recognized. In the past, some forms of ASD were misdiagnosed as schizophrenia because some ASD symptoms responded to the use of antipsychotic medication. Even when ASD was finally recognized as a distinct disorder, there were still issues with diagnosis due to the insistence on trying to fit all ASD patients into one of four categories, such as “high functioning Asperger’s Syndrome,” and then restrict treatment to whatever was recommended for that category.

Today, while the understanding of ASD is far from complete, there’s been much more progress and a better understanding of this condition. Unfortunately, one of the largest obstacles to fighting ASD remains, and that is, as with some other medical conditions, there is currently no cure available with the level of medical science available.

This doesn’t mean, however, that there’s no hope for people diagnosed with ASD. The spectrum and intensity of symptoms that make up ASD mean that while no cure exists, there are plenty of treatment options to overcome some issues of ASD. Behavioral therapy, for example, is one way for ASD patients to take control of their lives and train themselves to surpass the limitations that ASD may have imposed on them, such as difficulty in communicating.

Other new forms of treatment are in the wings, such as cord blood treatment. But what is it, and what does it bring to the table for those diagnosed with ASD?

What Is Cord Blood?

Cord blood is a generic term for umbilical cord fluids. These are the substances that are leftover after the birth of a child, that is no longer required in the mother’s body. While a child is growing in the womb, there is no direct eating or breathing through the mouth. Instead, all oxygen and nutrients are delivered “direct” to the baby through the umbilical cord, a literal lifeline that makes it possible for an infant to survive in the liquid environment of the womb without chewing on food, or drowning on fluid.

Aside from carrying nutrients, and carrying waste out, one of the most important substances contained in the mixture of cord blood is stem cells. Stem cells are a unique type of cell that only appear in large numbers during pregnancy. This is why, in modern medical facilities, after a child has been born, it’s common to request that the stem cells remaining in cord blood be harvested for future use. People, similar to organ transplants, can only accept stem cells with a high rate of compatibility, which means either the stem cells used during their growth in the womb or the stem cells of a close genetic relative, such as a sibling.

What Do Stem Cells Do?

Stem cells have, in medical science, earned the nickname “master cells” because they can do something no other human cell can do. Stem cells start “blank,” with no initial function, and can “reprogram” themselves to become any cell in the human body. This means that even heart cells, which normally do not reproduce once a person is born, can potentially heal if introduced to stem cells that can grow into heart cells.

Not all stem cells can do this. Cord blood contains this version of stem cells, known as “pluripotent.” After birth, humans no longer create this type of stem cell within themselves. A less versatile version is produced in bone marrow, but these stem cells confine themselves to becoming different types of blood cells, such as red, or white. Only the stem cells found in cord blood can take on the properties of any human cell.

What This Does For ASD

ASD has behavioral symptoms for the most part, but the underlying causes for those symptoms can be neurological. That is to say; there may be physical neural reasons for some of the behavior shown by children diagnosed with ASD.

This is where cord blood treatment comes in. Though ASD itself has no cure, some of the symptoms may be mitigated—or even removed—if there is a medical issue with the neural network or neural transmitters within a child. The introduction of stem cells into affected neural areas may encourage the growth of newer, uninfected nerve cells and neural transmitters.

This is how leukemia, a form of blood cancer, is already successfully treated through stem cell therapy. In those cases, the less versatile stem cells from bone marrow are usually employed, although since the goal is to replace cancerous blood cells that don’t reproduce properly with new, uninfected healthy ones, the desired outcome is still achieved.

For now, however, at least in the USA, stem cell therapy is only legally authorized for leukemia treatment. Cord blood treatment is being aggressively researched in other areas, including ASD treatment, and even incurable diseases like Alzheimer’s, but these treatments are unavailable to the public. Other countries, however, like Georgia, are offering these stem cell treatments, even if the USA is not.

15Dec

Many expecting mothers think about a lot of things and prepare for various possibilities. Aside from busying oneself in decorating the nursery in your home and buying baby clothes, some expecting parents also consider saving their newborn’s umbilical cord blood.

Some people may not have heard of this practice and may find it odd. However, this procedure can help you keep your baby or another family member healthy and safe. To further understand the concept, here’s some cord blood info for you.

What Is Cord Blood?

Doctors or other birth experts cut a newborn baby’s umbilical cord. Despite this, the blood vessels in the placenta and the attached part of the umbilical cord still have some blood. People call this the umbilical cord blood, which is also known as cord blood.

Cord blood has all the elements that blood has. It has a plasma, platelets, white blood cells, and red blood cells. Aside from this, it is also rich in blood stem cells, which are similar to the ones that exist in bone marrows.

Cord Blood for Treatment of Various Diseases

The use of stem cells in treating various conditions has been around for years. One procedure uses bone marrow stem cells. However, there is another type. Some medical professionals use the umbilical cord blood for stem cell therapy due to its many advantages.

  • More people can benefit from stem cells that came from cord blood that those that are from the bone marrow. The reason is that more people can match the cord blood transplant. The possibility of rejection is also less in cord blood stem cells than in bone marrow stem cells.
  • Collecting bone marrow is harder. Furthermore, the collection of bone marrow stem cells poses more risks and can cause pain to the donor or source.
  • You can store or freeze cord blood. Thus, it is readily available if you need it. Meanwhile, you should immediately use bone marrow upon collection.
  • Cord blood stem cells can strengthen the immune system. This advantage is especially helpful for patients that are undergoing cancer treatments.

Storage and Banking of Cord Blood

As stated earlier, cord blood can be frozen and stored for years. The method of freezing is known as cryopreservation. Through this, you can maintain the integrity of the stem cells. It is crucial to store umbilical cord blood properly. Thus, only professionals with proper medical facilities should do it.

As a parent, you can opt to store the cord blood of your baby in a private facility or bank. This way, it will be available in case you would need it in the future for your child’s health. First-degree and second-degree relatives can also benefit from it. You can search for private cord banks that offer blood collection as well as storage. Some people choose to donate their cor blood in public banks.

Here’s a few more cord blood info that may help you appreciate it:

  1. Saving umbilical cord blood is safe and not painful for the mother and her baby. The umbilical cord is cut immediately upon delivery. You can request the collection of the blood as an additional procedure. The process is simple. The professionals insert a needle connected to a collection bag into the umbilical cord vein. Then, the blood will flow to the bag.
  2. The stem cells will be a 100% match for your child. A sibling or another family member may also match with these stem cells. Also, cord blood stem cells are easy to match since there are no immune cells that have developed yet.
  3. The stem cells from your baby’s cord blood provide a medical option for you in case you need it in the future.
  4. Cord blood stem cells can rebuild white blood cells, red blood cells, bone cartilage, and nerves.
  5. Studies show that cord blood can treat more than 80 conditions.
  6. The only time you can collect and save umbilical cord blood is at birth.

Cord Blood Stem Cells and Autism

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), more commonly known as autism, is among the conditions that one can treat using cord blood stem cells. So if you discover that your child has autism after a few months or years, you can count on cord blood to treat them.

16Sep

Autism, more accurately referred to as ASD is still not a completely understood medical condition. One of the most challenging things about this condition is that it has such a huge range of different symptoms that for many years, it wasn’t even recognized as a distinct medical disorder. It wasn’t until the 1980s that ASD got its own category in mental health diagnosis. Before that, it was often incorrectly diagnosed as a variation of schizophrenia, which meant that many ASD patients got inadequate treatment.

Today, while we have a better understanding of ASD and its mechanics, our knowledge of this condition is far from complete. ASD can be treated as a mental disorder, but it also has some physical symptoms. While some of ASD’s symptoms can be treated through behavioral therapy, other symptoms may require medication, such as anti-depressants, or even anti-psychotics. And while autism can be a genetic disorder passed down through a family’s genetic line, it can also be caused by pre-natal conditions and even post-natal circumstances.

In other words, autism has many causes, many symptoms, and many approaches for treating it. The only thing that is consistent is that currently, medical science has no cure for it. One recent innovation in medicine, however, is getting promising results, and that is stem cell therapy, but how does it work?

The Promise Of Stem Cells

Stem cells have the medical nickname of “master cells” because they have a unique property that other cells in our body lack. Under normal circumstances, the only way to replace skin cells lost from a cut, or hair cells from shaving is by having the skin, or the hair, reproduce those cells from the same cells. In other words, skin cells can only grow more skin cells; they can’t grow brain or lung cells.

Stem cells, however, can do this. They start as a “blank” that is capable of becoming any cell in the human body. This, as surprising as it may seem, is hardly revolutionary since stem cells are what make it possible for a single, fertilized egg cell to grow into a baby, as cells divide, then ultimately “specialize” into organs like the brain, lungs, and liver. Under ordinary circumstances, however, stem cells are only present in large numbers during the growth of an embryo into a baby. Once we are born, the number of stem cells in our body is dramatically smaller and less versatile.

How Stem Cell Therapy Helps Autism

Stem cell therapy was first discovered as an effective treatment for blood-related cancer, specifically leukemia. Cancer’s primary effect is to cause rogue/mutation reproduction in cells, so that mutant cells eventually outnumber the healthy ones. Stem cell therapy was found to reverse this process, helping blood cells to start reproducing correctly.

For autism, stem cell therapy can transfuse stem cells into the body, and once there, can replace, or stimulate the growth of cells that may be impaired or damaged. If this is occurring with neural or brain cells, then it may mean that nerve or brain operations physically affected by autism, resulting in ASD symptoms, such as hostility, or lack of communicativeness, can be managed and reversed to some degree by the use of stem cell therapy.

How Is Stem Cell Therapy Applied?

There are essentially two different “grades” of stem cells. The best most versatile stem cells referred to as “pluripotent” are the stem cells used during pregnancy. Because these stem cells must be prepared to grow into every conceivable organ, they are the most useful and are available even after birth has occurred, provided that a mother, after delivery, consents to have the stem cells harvested. This is known as “cord blood,” because the area where stem cells are richest is in the umbilical cord.

If stem cells from birth are unavailable, less versatile, but still useful stem cells can be collected from the patient. This is a more protracted process that involves surgery to collect the stem cells from within bone marrow, but it is important to get stem cells biologically compatible with the patient. Any other stem cells will be rejected.

Once an approved supply of stem cells is available for transfusion, the stem cells are delivered intravenously or intrathecally. In the case of intravenous delivery, the bloodstream is used to transport stem cells to their destination, so a needle or IV is used in this method. Intrathecal delivery, which is more common for neural/brain-related stem cell transfusion, requires the spinal cord be used as the main thoroughfare to deliver stem cells. In this case, the stem cells are injected into the spine, from which point they naturally disperse.

It is important to get proper medical consultation before deciding to apply stem cell therapy to an autistic patient. In some cases, behavioral therapy can have much more positive, lifelong impacts for a child, but in other cases, only stem cell therapy may be an effective treatment. Make sure you make an informed choice.

8Jul

While, autism, or, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), currently has no permanent cure, there are some aspects of this condition that can be treated to manage or reduce certain symptoms. Some of these treatments are behavioral therapies, such as teaching children to maintain eye contact when communicating, or specific training to learn how to tie shoes. Other treatments are medical in nature, such as the use of stem cell therapy to reduce aggression or increase engagement and language receptivity.

However, while stem cell therapy is providing some promising results, it is also a more recent development in medical technology. Primarily it is used in the treatment of certain types of cancer, such as leukemia, but the applications for stem cell therapy are spreading, and, aside from ASD treatment, there is hope that it may one day prove to be a viable treatment for other conditions, such as Alzheimer’s, or even paralysis.

But why? What is it about stem cell therapy that makes it so effective? What are stem cells?

From Blank To Specialized

To understand the value of stem cells, we need to go back to the basics, with the development of a fertilized egg that, nine months later, is born into the world as a fully developed baby. When an egg is first fertilized and shares its DNA with sperm to create a new DNA “blueprint” that will eventually become a baby, it is still a single cell. That cell then divides, then divides again. Over time, it keeps dividing until dozens of cells turn into thousands, then millions.

At some point, those cells begin to specialize. Some become brain cells, while others become lung cells, and still others become blood cells. All of these cells, following the blueprint of DNA, take on specific roles, becoming the various organs that make up a human being. The reason these cells can do so is that in the womb, as a baby is developing, the child relies on stem cells.

Stem cells are like a blank disc or USB stick for computers. By themselves, they are empty, but if you decide to put videos there, you can now watch videos. If you store your music there, you can listen to music. If you have the software you want to use, you can even transfer it there. In other words, that blank space or data becomes “overwritten” with whatever function you require.

A Limited Duration

Stem cells are only available in “plentiful supply” for the duration of a child’s development in the womb. Once a child is ready for birth, the available supply of stem cells dramatically drops off. However, during birth, plenty of stem cells are still available—though not necessarily used—in different parts of a mother’s body. This is where “cord blood” becomes an extremely valuable medical substance.

Cord blood refers to the biological materials found in the placenta, the thin sac that surrounds a baby during pregnancy. It is also the umbilical cord, the direct physical connection between the mother and child that acts as a “toll gate” delivering nutrients from the mother so the baby can grow. The umbilical cord also expels waste from the baby so that it can remain clean and healthy. A significant amount of stem cells remain in cord blood after birth, which is why many mothers are now asked if they would like to have cord blood collected and stored. The stem cells could be valuable material for future medical treatment.

The Less Effective Option

Once a baby is born and starts to mature, the stem cell population drops off significantly. Now, most cells can only reproduce more copies of themselves, and not all cells can do this in abundance. So while people can get cuts to their skin, and immediately have skin cells start reproducing replacements when someone suffers from amputation, the bone, muscle and nerve cells can’t grow back in the numbers required for a limb to replace itself, the same way lizards do when they lose a tail.

Stem cells are still present in people after birth, but in very limited quantities, and they don’t necessarily have the same versatility. In adults, a small number of stem cells exist in bone marrow, the brain, and liver. However, these stem cells are quite limited and can only produce related cells.

This is why stem cell therapy has been so successful for people diagnosed with leukemia, a type of blood cancer. A bone marrow transplant and stem cell therapy with stem cells from bone marrow can produce new blood cells to replace the ones damaged or rendered defective by leukemia.

Other Options

Under certain conditions, the stem cells that are harvested in other parts of the body, such as bone marrow, can be modified in labs to function as pluripotent stem cells, that is, cells that more closely resemble the embryonic cells of cord blood. However, even here, the results have not been as wide-ranging as embryonic stem cells, which remain the best source of effective stem cell therapy treatment.




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