Lifeline Cord Blood

When you’re pregnant and trying to make an informed decision for your family, cutting through all of the static can be a challenge. You take in opinions from family members, friends, and experts; you page through countless books and endless online information, but often you wind up even more conflicted than before.

“This is a minimally invasive procedure. The cell source is accessible, has relatively low processing costs and no ethical conflict,” he said. “It has an extensive track record for safety since it has been used at length in patients with a range of conditions, with no reported adverse effects.”
Figueroa said some scientists believe secretions from the stem cells have regenerative effects on heart tissue. Many scientists also believe the cells are effective in treating heart failure because of the way they decrease damage caused by the immune system.

American Heart Association, Carole Bullock

DALLAS, Dec. 31 - New treatments for heart failure - implantable heart devices and cell-grown tissues - are among the top 10 research advances in heart disease and stroke for 2001, says David Faxon, M.D., president of the American Heart Association...

LOS ANGELES--(Business Wire)--Children's Hospital Los Angeles is announcing participation in the first-ever clinical trial using stem cells from umbilical cord blood to delay or even prevent heart failure in children born with a rare congenital heart defect that leaves them with half a heart.

The new clinical trial had the Mayo Clinic collecting the umbilical cord blood of infants with HLHS, where they had surgery within the first few days of life at CHLA. Six months later, the second heart surgery takes place where stem cells from the umbilical cord are injected into the heart. Researchers believe that this will stimulate muscle growth in the heart.

Duke University Medical Center

Researchers with Joanne Kurtzberg's team at Duke University announced molecular evidence that cord blood stem cells can infiltrate and repair damaged heart tissue. The heart in question belonged to a child who had been transplanted for a metabolic disorder, Sanfilippo Syndrome. In another case, cord blood stem cells turned into brain cells in the laboratory...

Heart Disease; Stem Cell Research

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...

Imagine a damaged human heart restored to its natural function, thanks to the contribution of umbilical cord blood stem cells. It may sound like science fiction, but research suggests that this scenario may not be too far in our future...

Dabaghi Therapeutics, Inc., a stem cell and gene therapy pioneer, announced today plans for the world's first Human Cord Blood (HCBC) stem cell treatment clinical trial via Intramyocardial delivery...

Murga M, Yao L, Tosato G. Stem Cells

Study: Scientists isolated endothelial precursors from cord blood and placed them in culture with angiogenic factors to promote proliferation. After twelve days of culture, the cord blood-derived cells differentiated into endothelial cells and subsequently formed functional microvessels when transplanted into mice...

Ikeda Y, et al. Hypertension Research

Study: Researchers used gene therapy to induce differentiation of cord blood stem cells into endothelial cells. These differentiated cells enhanced angiogenesis and significantly expedited vascular recovery when transplanted into rats with hind limb ischemia...

URHAM, N.C., June 23, 2015 /PRNewswire-iReach/ --

To date, the only definitive treatment for heart failure – an organ transplant – is hampered by both the limited number of organ donors and the potential for the patient's body to reject the new heart.  However, findings of a study published in STEM CELLS Translational Medicine demonstrate the promise in regenerating cardiac tissue using engineered patches made up of a mixture of fibrin and mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) derived from human umbilical cord blood.

Cardiovasc Res.

We tested the hypothesis that intravenously administered human umbilical cord blood (hUCB) cells contribute to repair processes following myocardial infarction. METHODS: hUCB mononuclear cells containing 0.11% to 1.1% CD34(+) cells were injected in the tail vein...

By David Brinn

When Dr. Christian Barnard performed the world's first successful heart transplant back in 1967, he reached a new peak of human scientific achievement. However, almost 40 years later, the criteria for receiving a new heart is quite stringent, and heart transplants are granted to those patients who have the highest chance for recovery. For thousands of elderly or gravely ill patients with damaged hearts, a transplant is not an option...

Mayo Clinic is announcing the first stem cell clinical trial for pediatric congenital heart disease in the United States. The trial aims to determine how stem cells from autologous umbilical cord blood can help children with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS).

Intravenous infusion of UC-MSC was safe in this group of patients with stable HFrEF under optimal medical treatment. Improvements in left ventricular function, functional status and quality of life were observed in patients treated with UC-MSCs.

A Spanish hospital has successfully used stem cells culled from healthy donors to treat seven heart attack victims, in what officials said was a world first.

Madrid's Gregorio Maranon hospital plans to treat 55 patients in all with the technique in a clinical trial, the regional Madrid government which runs the hospital said in a statement.

The promise of stem cells to treat cardiovascular disease may soon be a step closer to clinical application as scientists seek to perfect and test three-dimensional “heart patches” in a large animal model — the last big hurdle before trials in human patients. In theory, the heart patches, engineered tissue composed of the several different types of cells that make up heart muscle, would be implanted to replace diseased or damaged tissue and would perform all the functions of healthy, beating heart muscle. Using stem cells to treat cardiovascular disease is a grail of regenerative medicine, explains Timothy J. Kamp, a University of Wisconsin-Madison cardiologist and co-director of the UW-Madison Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center. Treating diseased hearts by implanting healthy, lab-grown cells to replace damaged tissue has been an aspiration of stem cell biologists since all-purpose human stem cells were first derived and cultured at UW-Madison in 1998.

By Chawadee Nualkhair

Esteban Bonilla feels no trepidation as he is wheeled into the operating room of a Bangkok hospital, despite the fact he is only minutes away from starting an experimental stem cell procedure he hopes will keep him alive...