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Ed Yeates Reporting The country's largest coalition of pediatricians is asking parents to donate the umbilical cords from their newborns. The cords are routinely discarded after a child is born. Pediatricians now want the cord blood saved to save the lives of other children.
Cord blood stem cell banks! That's what the American Academy of Pediatrics says is needed now to help treat children afflicted with leukemia and all kinds of immune disorders. And these aren't the only ailments.
At this new University of Utah lab, technicians screen and process bone marrow and cord blood stem cells for research and clinical therapy.
Like bone marrow, cord blood pulled from a newborn's discarded umbilical cord provides an invaluable source of stem cells.
The University will now collaborate with one of six selected cord blood banks in the country and five hospitals in the Salt Lake area to collect cord blood from parents who agree long before their infants are born to donate the umbilical cords.
Linda Kelley, Ph.D., Director, U of U Cell Therapy Facility: "If there is any issue with problems with the delivery, then this is no longer an option. So this will only happen if this goes very smoothly. The baby is delivered and handed off to a professional. At that point, our collection staff will then have access to the placenta and the umbilical cord."
Because these stem cells can do so much for other sick kids, the government has allocated 80-million dollars to set up a network of cord blood cell banks. Leukemia, immune disorders, and more, stem cells can repair a lot of damage, including a failing heart.
Clinical trials will begin this spring on patients at Salt Lake's Veterans Hospital to see if stem cells repair heart muscle damaged in heart disease. And for kidneys and more, perhaps even the nervous system!
G. Russell Reiss, M.D., Medical Director, U of U Cell Therapy Facility: "Regeneration of nerve cells in an acute setting where there's a neurological injury, or a spinal cord injury maybe making the injury less complete and allow a better chance of recovery."
In addition to the cell therapy lab, Drs. Reiss and Kelley hope Utah, with all its young healthy families and births, can can get funding to set up its own cord stem cell bank here as well.
