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.
Stem cells from umbilical cord blood may provide the raw material to repair the hearts of thousands of babies born each year with defective heart valves, according to data presented at the recent American Heart Association annual meeting.
Cardiologists from the University Hospital of Munich report they are about five years away from transplanting new heart valves into children with heart defects, made from the children’s own cord blood.(1)
Congenital heart defects – or problems with the heart’s structure that are present at birth – are the most common type of major birth defect.(2) In children with heart valve abnormalities, the valves do not fully open or close and impede the flow of blood.(3) While surgeons can transplant new valves from donors or from artificial material, these valves won’t grow as the children do, meaning these individuals will require repeated operations to provide them with new, larger valves, said Dr. Ralf Sodian, the cardiac surgeon who led the research.(1)
Replacement heart valves made from the child’s own cord blood stem cells would theoretically grow with the child and change shape as needed, significantly reducing the number of surgeries necessary for these patients.
In this study, the cord blood stem cells were seeded onto biodegradable heart valve scaffolds and grown in the laboratory. The cells formed a tissue layer around the scaffolding and further tests showed the engineered cells formed viable heart tissue. When their ability to handle blood flow and pressure were tested, the valves created from cord blood stem cells showed capabilities similar to natural heart valves.(4)
Similar results from a pre-clinical study showed cord blood endothelial stem cells demonstrated excellent growth potential for tissue-engineered vascular grafts that could replace human heart defects.(5)
The research presented at this meeting – as well as those pre-clinical findings – offer a compelling reason why parents with a child diagnosed intrauterinely with congenital defects should consider preserving their child’s cord blood, since it may offer a treatment option in the future.
About Cardiovascular Disease
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the U.S. Approximately one million people die of cardiovascular disease annually despite medical intervention, with coronary artery disease claiming 50 percent of those lives.(6) Although heart disease impacts an older population whose heart muscle, arteries and pumping function have deteriorated over time, heart ailments also strike the very young. According to the National Institutes of Health, congenital heart disease is responsible for more deaths in the first year of life than any other birth defect.(7)
About Cardiovascular Disease and Cord Blood
The stem cells found in a newborn’s umbilical cord blood are one type of stem cell holding great promise in cardiovascular repair.
Repairing Blood Vessels and Improving Ventricular Function
The heart demands a large volume of blood flow in order to bring nutrients and oxygen to the muscle tissue after it has been damaged. Research demonstrates that cord blood stem cells are capable of giving rise to vascular endothelial-like cells, which are believed to aid in the repair of heart tissue damage due to myocardial infarction.
Cardiomyocytes and Cord Blood: In Vitro Studies Show Promise
Permanent loss of cardiomyocytes (heart muscle cells) and the formation of scar tissue following a heart attack result in irreversible damage to cardiac function. Human cord blood contains several different types of stem cells including hematopoietic, endothelial and mesenchymal stem cells. Although still in early stages, four in vitro studies have shown that under certain treatment conditions, cord blood mesenchymal stem cells differentiate into cardiomyocyte-like cells (14,15,16,17) and were able to induce regeneration of healthy cells from damaged cardiomyocytes.(17) This suggests that cord blood stem cells have a high potential to differentiate into cardiomyocytes and aid the regeneration of cardiomyocytes lost due to heart damage.
Advances in Peripheral Vascular Disease
The ability of cord blood stem cells to become vascular endothelial-like cells, and thus, blood vessels, indicates they will likely have potential applications beyond the heart.
The Future of Cord Blood Stem Cell Cardiac Therapy
As a next step to the research presented at the American Heart Association meeting, the study investigators plan to begin experiments next year to test their procedure in animal models. They will implant the heart valves made from cord blood into the hearts of young lambs, observing their ability to grow and function over time.(1)
The growing library of research on cardiac repair suggests an infant’s own cord blood could prove to be a valuable treatment option not just for treating a congenital heart defect, but perhaps later in life if the individual experiences a sudden and serious heart attack.
References
1. Waters R. Cord Blood Stem Cells May Help Repair Babies’ Heart Defects. Bloomberg. November 10, 2008. Accessed November 2008.
2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About Heart Disease Page. http://www.cdc.gov/HeartDisease/about.htm. Accessed April 2008.
3. Arkansas Children’s Hospital. The Heart Center. Heart Conditions, Diagnosis and Treatment. http://www.pediatric-cardiology.com/Heart_Health/heart_health.asp. Accessed November 2008.
4. American Heart Association Press Release. Umbilical cord blood may help build new heart valves. http://americanheart.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=548. Accessed November 2008.
5. Schmidt D, Breymann C, Weber A, Guenter CI, Neuenschwander S, Zund G, Turina M, Hoerstrup SP. Umbilical cord blood derived endothelial progenitor cells for tissue engineering of vascular grafts. Ann Thorac Surg. 2004 Dec;78(6):2094-8.
6. Harris DT, Badowski M, Ahmad N, Gaballa MA. The potential of cord blood stem cells for use in regenerative medicine. Expert Opinion on Biological Therapy. 2007;7(9):1311-1322.
7. U.S. National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health. Medline Plus. Congenital Heart Disease page. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001114.htm. Accessed January 2008.
8.National Institutes of Health. Stem Cell Information Page. http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/scireport/chapter9.asp. Accessed January 2008.
9. Ma N, Stamm C, Kaminski A, Li W, et al. Human cord blood cells induce angiogenesis following myocardial infarction in NOD/scid-mice. Cardiovascular Research. 2005;66(1):45-54.
10. Hu CH, Wu GF, Wang XO et al. Transplanted human umbilical cord blood mononuclear cells improve left ventricular function through angiogenesis in myocardial infarction. Chin Med J (Engl). 2006;119(18):1499-506.
11. Ma N. Ladilov Y, Kaminski A, Piechaczek C. Stamm C. Umbilical cord blood cell transplantation for myocardial regeneration. Transplant proc. 2005;38(3):771-3.
12. Leor J, Guetta E, Feinberg MS et al. Human umbilical cord blood-derived CD133+ cells enhance function and repair of the infarcted myocardium. Stem Cells. 2006;24(3):772-80.
13. Henning RJ, Abu-Ali H, Balis JU, Morgan MB, Willing AE, Sanberg PR. Human umbilical cord blood mononuclear cells for the treatment of acute myocardial infarction. Cell Transplant. 2004;13(7-8):729-39.
14. Cheng F, Zou P, Handong Y. Induced differentiation of human cord blood mesenchymal stem/progenitor cells into cardiomyocyte-like cells in vitro. J Huazong Univ Sci and Tech. 2003;23(2):154-157.
15. Nishiyama N, Miyoshi S, Hida N, et al. The significant cardiomyogenic potential of human umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells in vitro. Stem Cells. 2007;25(8):2017-24.
16. Bonanno G, Mariotti A, Procoli A, et al. Human cord blood CD133+ cells immunoselected by a clinical-grade apparatus differentiate in vitro into endothelial- and cardiomyocyte-like cells. Transfusion. 2007;47(2):280-9.
17. Yamada Y, Yokoyama S, Fukuda N, et al. A novel approach for myocardial regeneration with educated cord blood cells cocultured with cells from brown adipose tissue. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2007;353(1):182-8.
18. U.S. National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health. Medline Plus. Peripheral Vascular Disease page. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/peripheralvasculardiseases.html. Accessed January 2008.
19. Ikeda Y, Noboru F, Wada M, Matsumoto T, Satomi A, Yokoyama SI, Saito S, Masumoto K, Katsuo K, Mugishima H. Development of angiogenic cell and gene therapy by transplantation of umbilical cord blood with vascular endothelial growth factor gene. Hypertens Res. 2004;27(2):119-128.
20. Cho S-W, Gwak S-J, Kang S-W, et al. Enhancement of angiogenic efficacy of human cord blood cell transplantation. Tissue Eng. 2006;12(6):1651-1661.