The scientific journal Cell Transplantation has 2 studies that have explored umbilical cord blood stem cells for lung and heart disorders.  Both studies were conducted using animals so they are very preliminary, but they offer great potential for future treatments.

In one study, researchers investigated the therapeutic benefits of transplanting human umbilical cord blood (UCB) mensenchymal stem cells (MSC) into newborn laboratory rats with oxygen-deprived lung injury.  They found that the cells have a protective effect against hyperoxia-induced lung injury, likely due to anti-inflammatory effects.  These results might eventually lead to the discovery of treatments for hypertoxic neonatal lung disease, or bronchopulmonary dysplasia in premature human infants.

Another research team examined the potential therapeutic role of umbilical cord mononuclear cells (UCMNC) for the treatment of congenital heart defects. They found that the transplants enhanced diastolic properties, most likely through blood vessel growth.  The study found that UCMNC transplants are “feasible and safe” and seem to “positively influence the diastolic properties of the RV under chronic volume overload.” Read the study here.

Chloe Levine was born seemingly perfect — she was the happy and healthy baby her parents had dreamed of.

But by the time she was 9 months old, Chloe was not reaching the milestones her older sister Shayla had met at that age.

Chloe’s right hand was constantly clenched in a tight fist – she couldn’t even hold her bottle. And she wasn’t able to crawl; she would “shuffle” her body across the floor in a seated position, her mother, Jenny, recalls.

Soon after Chloe’s first birthday, the Levines, who live in Denver, learned their daughter had suffered a stroke in utero and had become afflicted with cerebral palsy.

The Levines remembered they had banked stem cells from Chloe’s umbilical cord at her birth, and wondered if they could be used to help treat her.

On May 28, 2008, at the age of 2, Chloe received a 15-minute re-infusion of her stem cells.

Within four days, her parents saw a noticeable difference, although Kurtzberg said most kids show benefits three to nine months later.

The rigidity on Chloe’s right side loosened up and her speech started to improve. She was able to ride her toy tractor, which in the past had been too difficult for her to pedal.

“Her life is completely normal, she doesn’t drag her right foot, she can use her right hand,” Jenny Levine said. “She rides a bike, a scooter…we’re taking her skiing this year. She’s fabulous.”

Dr. Charles Cox, from the University of Texas-Houston Medical School, has been studying cord blood cells for the past 2 1/2 years.

“Umbilical cord blood cell therapy for traumatic brain injury has a lot of pre-clinical work that has been done, suggesting that it’s beneficial,” Cox said. “I believe that cord blood is equivalent or better than bone marrow-derived cells.”

Cox said if the parents do not choose to save the cord blood, it is considered medical waste and thrown away.

“Really, the issue of cord blood banking today comes down to trying to understand what the future holds in terms of regenerative medicine as a field,” Cox said. “So, the long-term look is, and even the intermediate-term look is that it’s not science-fiction. I see it expanding and accelerating over the next two to five years.”

Oxygen deprived newborns are the focus of a new study underway at Duke University in North Carolina. The pilot programme is being led by Dr Joanne Kurtzberg, who succesfully reinfused New Zealander Maia Friedlander with her own cord blood last year. The purpose of the pilot study is to evaluate the safety and feasibility of infusions of autologous (the patient’s own) umbilical cord blood stem cells in term gestation newborn infants with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy.

See the full details of the study here.