Donation Kit

Today I received my cord blood donation kit to take to the hospital in a few weeks. For those who may be curious to see what they look like, here are a few pictures.

"What every parent should know"

These are exerpts from an article I found talking about the importance of banking cord blood.

“With cord blood we are the first in the world to have developed a liver from umbilical cord blood stem cells, an insulin secreting pancreas and also nervous tissues from the brain. “What we are doing now is applying this research to see if it is possible to treat people with our developments shortly,” says Professor McGuckin. “The potential to treat numerous common and life-threatening diseases is enormous. These youthful stem cells found in cord blood are the building cells of the body and they have the capacity to adapt to an environment and help develop and build what ever is needed.”

“I would urge people to save cord blood or donate to public banks if you can’t afford to store it, because at a later date, if your cord blood is still in the public bank there is a high chance of getting it back should you need it,” says Professor McGuckin.
“Statistically, the more cord blood in the bank, the more chance of matches there are for people that need it.” Saving cord blood does sound like a sound biological investment. Apart from already making massive progress in the treatment of diabetes Type 1, strokes, leukemia and certain cancers using cord blood stem cells, Professor McGuckin and his team say they also hope to discover a treatment for ‘bubble gum children’ - children that have lost their immune systems and have to stay inside pressurised bubbles because if you touch them they die of infection.
“All it takes is a few minutes after a baby’s birth to collect these precious cells, but unfortunately not enough parents know that this could be an option for them,” says Professor McGuckin. “It’s not good enough just putting a brochure in a doctor’s lab, we need to really be putting the message out there for people to consider.”
“Preserving cord blood could save many lives and lots of money in the very near future.”

http://www.7days.ae/en/2008/02/04/sly-wants-to-take-on-junta.html

Future Cure For Stroke Victims

I just ran across this article from National Geographic News. The University of Minnesota conducted a research study on the effects of Umbilical Cord Stem Cells on rats who had suffered strokes. They found that these cells largely reversed the effect caused by a stroke. The rats were almost fully healed within 48 hrs. This study is disproving the theory that umbilical cord stem cells can only turn into blood cells. The stem cells were able to turn into brain cells and virtually cure the rats. The treatment did need to happen within a few hours after the stroke but was none the less effective.

A benefit of cord blood stem cells is that unlike organ transplants where there has to be an exact match, stem cells just have to be “similar”. They are more forgiving for compatibility.

Dr. Low is an advacate of public banking. Minnesota’s Low says he would prefer parents donate cord blood to a central reserve that’s available to everyone, strengthening existing public banks. “To me, that makes more sense,” he said. “You make sort of a national cord-blood bank that everyone can deposit into and everyone can draw from.”

news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/04/0406_060406_cord_blood_2.html

Stem Cells Future Cure for Baldness

Today on the Today Show, they had a segment on stem cells being a future cure for baldness. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania made the discovery when studying wound healing in mice using stem cells. They soon noticed that new hair follicles had formed as well as new hair growth. It required a protein called wnt which is present in the womb. Without this protein there was no hair growth. Unfortunitly the person will have to have their head “scalped” but there is always a price to pay for beauty. This procedure is still years out but gives hope to the millions of people who are affected by baldness. The hair currently only grows in white, but that’s nothing a good dye job couldn’t fix.