Known usage of Cord blood
Which diseases can be treated with cord blood?
Cord blood has been most successful in the treatment of 70 different kinds of diseases. The diseases that are considered treatable with cord blood include inherited diseases of the red blood cells, the immune system and certain metabolic abnormalities. Cord blood stem cells are also used against lymphomas, myelodysplasia and servere aplastic anemia. Research into the use of cord blood to treat Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, diabetes and other kinds of blood disorders are on. Efforts are also being made to find out the use of cord blood stem cells in cloning and tissue culture for the creation of liver and tissue cells that can be used in organ transplant.
Cord blood stem cell transplants help regenerate the cells in the blood and also the bone marrow cells reversing the impact of the blood related and immune system disorders. This therapy has been tried out successfully in the cure of almost 97 diseases.
A few of the major medical conditions in which cord blood stem cells are used are:
- Anaplastic anemia - a disease that is caused by bone marrow failure or exposure to radiation and chemotherapeutic agents resulting in a low level of healthy and new blood cells in the body;
- Beta Thalassemia Major - another medical condition in which the person has a low level of hemoglobin in the blood , this is an inherited problem;
- Sickle cell disease - an inherited blood disorder resulting in low level of red blood cells. Those cells carry oxygen to different parts of the body;
- X-Linked Lymphoproliferative disorder - an inherited disorder caused by a damaged immune system, which is susceptible to Epstein-Barr virus infection.
- Adrenoleukodystrophy - is a myelin degenerative genetic disease linked to the X gene.
- Tay-Sachs disease – is a genetic disease that is characterized by high levels of ganglioside fatty acid that can cause blindness, inability to swallow, speech difficulties, unsteady gait and spasticity.
- Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia is a disease characterized by abnormal and defective blasts, and a medical condition in which the body is unable to fight infections.
- Acute Myelogenous Leukemia is the cancer that affects the blood and bone marrow.
- Multiple Sclerosis - is a disease of the central nervous system.
- Multiple Myeloma is the cancer of the plasma cells in the bone marrow.
Use of cord blood stem cells to generate stem cells
Cord blood stem cells have been used in laboratories to create newer stem cells. A team of British and American scientists have conducted a number of experiments with cord blood stem cells, and found that some of the stem cells have embryonic qualities and act like primary cells. They have isolated these cells and created an environment in which the stem cells proliferate and create more stem cells. This discovery may help save lives, of people that have been threatened by cancer and other blood and immune system problems.
The full potential of the cord blood in transplant medicine and therapeutic medicine is still to be realized. Future treatment with cord blood stem cells may include Diabetes, Heart Disease, Liver Disease, Muscular Dystrophy, Parkinson’s disease, Spinal Cord Injury, Stroke and other similar diseases. Meanwhile it would be in the interests of humanity if the experiments are continued unhindered and more and more people come forward to preserve the umbilical cord blood of their children.