Role of Cord blood stem cells in treatment of Chronic inflammatory bowel disease According to the WHO report, minimum 2000 Cord Blood Stem Cell Transplants are performed annually to cure diseases such as leukemia, sickle cell anemia, thalassaemia, cerebral palsy, myeloma, lymphoma and more. More than 35000 cord blood stem cell transplants have already been performed worldwide and 53% of cord blood transplants have been performed in children. (World Cord Blood Congress 2015 Report). Cryopreservation of stem cells (Stem cell banking) has witnessed a rise in demand due to growing potential of cord blood stem cells to cure life threatening diseases. Stem cell banking in India has emerged as one of the most promising fields of science and healthcare. Stem cell banks are equipped to cryopreserve the umbilical cord blood stem cells for over two decades. As people slowly understand its benefits, they are surely including it in their family planning goals. Stem cell banking in India is now affordable and stem cell banks also offer convenient fee schedule so every parent can afford it. This article cites the role of cord blood stem cells in treatment of chronic inflammatory bowel disease. What is chronic inflammatory bowel disease? Chronic inflammatory bowel disease comprises Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, which are both relapsing and remitting disorders most commonly presenting in the 2nd or 3rd decade and causing life long impairment of health and quality of life. Both Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis have a strong genetic component as evidenced by a high proportion of patients with a family history and, in the case of Crohn’s disease. Crohn’s disease is also associated with early hygiene and with consumption of a diet high in unrefined carbohydrate although whether the latter is cause or effect is debated. Whilst the mechanisms by which interactions between genetic and environmental factors lead to Crohn‘s disease are unclear, Crohns disease involves a loss of immune tolerance in the gastrointestinal tract, characterised by an overactive TH-1 immune response. Current treatment options include only disease management and are not very effective. The possibility that stem cell transplantation, treatment option for inflammatory bowel disease, particularly Crohn‘s disease, initially arose from reports of improvements that occurred in patients with Crohn‘s disease who had stem cell transplants for other reasons. How the patients were treated using stem cells? In the first stage treatment, stem cells are harvested in a process called mobilisation. Drug treatment is used to mobilise the stem cells so that some of them can be harvested from the blood and stored for later use. It is useful to know that the drug used for mobilization your stem cells is also effective against Crohn’s disease, thus this preparatory phase results in a treatment by itself. Patients are assigned to undergo immunoablation and stem cell transplantation either 4 weeks after mobilisation or 59 weeks after mobilisation . Immunoablation means the elimination of the stem cells in your body, and is achieved by combining high doses of cyclophosphamide and antithymocyte globulin, both administered by infusion. Then the stem cells that were harvested earlier are transplanted (re-infused) into your blood, like a regular blood transfusion thereafter homing into the bone marrow. The re-infused stem cells give rise to a new generation of immune cells, replacing cells of the original ‘sick’ immune system. Based on the results, it was observed that cord blood stem cells have immense of potential to treat such life threatening diseases.
Check how a Chinese baby girl Zhao was treated for Crohn’s disease. Zhao’s stem cells were extracted from the cord blood of a donor’s umbilical cord.
Image 1: Zhao Jiaxin is back in her parents’ arms yesterday after being released from hospital in Shanghai. The baby earlier underwent stem cell therapy at Fudan University’s Children’s Hospital to treat a bowel disease. The stem cells were extracted from umbilical cord blood provided by a donor. -
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/metro/health-and-science/Baby-girl-returns-home-aftersuccessful-stem-cell-treatment/shdaily.shtml Umbilical cord blood was once thought of as a waste product. Now, years after many successful umbilical cord blood transplants, more families are establishing trust in the concept the cord blood stem cells and seek information about whether or not to save their newborn’s cord blood. Considering the vast range of diseases cord blood can cure and several advantages of umbilical cord blood stem cells listed below in Table 1; parents must opt for cord blood banking for their upcoming baby.
Table 1: Advantages of umbilical cord blood stem cells
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