Over the years, stem cell transplantation has been considered a promising approach towards treating problems with regard to malignant and non-malignant disorders of the blood and bone marrow. These stem cells, which are used for transplant, mostly comes from the bone marrow, the peripheral blood (bloodstream), or a newborn baby’s umbilical cord blood.

Bone marrow transplant has been considered as a preferential treatment option for a long time. However, because of the primitiveness and relative agelessness of cord blood stem cells, such therapy has emerged as a strong contender of bone marrow in treating lethal diseases. Such unique properties of stem cell have poised them as potential therapeutic options for disorders like cerebral palsy, Alzheimer’s, Autism, Parkinson’s and others, through extensive research.

Why Are Researchers Thinking in This Line of Stem Cell Therapy?

In order to treat a condition, at the outset, mention must be made of both bone marrow and cord blood stem cell transplants. Essentially, both the transplantations are carried out to replace the unhealthy cells with the healthy ones. But, while making a decision to choose the better one, different criteria are made for evaluation:

Painless Collection

The bone marrow is the gelatinous tissue inside the bones. In preparation of a bone marrow transplant, the marrow (with stem cells) is extracted either from the donor or from the patient’s own bones (hips and leg bones), under general anaesthesia, through a series of needle insertions. This is an extremely painful invasive procedure. The extracted bone marrow is then filtered, processed and used.

On the other hand – After the baby’s delivery, a sterile needle is inserted into the cord vein and the blood left behind in the cord and placenta is collected in a bag. Without causing any pain or risk to the mother or the baby, (non-invasive procedure), the unit is collected and transported to the lab for processing, quality testing, cryogenic-preservation and dispensation when needed.

Going by the basics, earlier, when babies were delivered, it was prevalent to treat the umbilical cord (with the blood) as medical waste. However, with the advent of cord blood stem cell therapy, the scenario has changed.

Low Graft Versus Host Disease

Graft versus Host Disease is a serious complication during a transplant, where the donated stem cells view the recipient’s body as foreign body and hence attack the recipient.  It has been estimated to be fatal in up to 40% patients, especially in cases of bone marrow transplant, where an immune system response is triggered against the tissues and other organs resulting in complications, even death. However, since cord blood stem cells are more primitive than bone marrow, acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is not observed after an umbilical cord blood transplantation.

Easier Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) Matching

A marker, the immune system uses to recognise foreign cells. A close match between a donor’s and a patient’s own HLA markers is of utmost importance for a successful transplant. This match promotes the growth of healthy blood cells and reduces the chances of GVHD. In case of bone marrow transplant research has shown that, 7 out of 10 patients, may not have a fully matched donor in their family. Whereas, since the cord blood stem cells are considered to be purer, more adaptable and active expression of fewer HLA Loci, the possibility of finding a suitable match within the family and siblings is much higher. ^[3]

Availability

Since the umbilical cord blood is nascent, a question that often comes up about the storage of cord blood is – How long can the stem cells be maintained in frozen form and still be viable for transplant? In a corresponding response to this question, scientists say that, with proper freezing and storage methods (in liquid nitrogen), the cord blood stem cells can be preserved for decades or, maybe for an indefinite period of time. The current data shows that cord blood stem cells stored for 21-23.5 years have shown to retain biological properties similar to that when they were cryopreserved. This means that, if the need arises, the individual or his/her family can use these stem cells for treatment even after two decades of these cells being stored.

These and other advancements in research where there are so many diseases and disorders, whose treatment is in the advanced stages of clinical trials, makes stem cell therapy through cord blood banking, one of the most responsible decisions that you can take as would-be parents.  Read on to find out why Cordlife, a brand known for its premium-ness should be your 1st choice.

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Stem cells have opened so many gateways to personalized medicine that no one could ever imagine a few years back. Not only the traditional transplants, with stem cells, medical practitioners are now able to treat many rare conditions. Thanks to the researchers and their novel techniques, involving stem cells.

This is a story of Javier Tan, a 9 year old boy, who was suffering from a rare genetic illness, Fanconi anaemia, which led his blood count drop to a significantly low levels. He required a stem-cell transplant; so that his body would be able create new blood cells

He received his first stem cell transplant when he was 7. The surgery was meant to save his life but call it irony of fate that it turned his life into a nightmare. Instead of healing, he contracted a bone infection. His condition was so severe that his doctors anticipated he would lose the limb.

In that scenario, the optimum option was to wait for another donor, which might have taken several months. Instead his doctors administrated another transplant and that too within weeks. When his doctors realized that they would require the donor to be only a 50% and not 100%, his father became the donor, who was earlier rejected.

Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) matching is important in both cord blood and bone marrow transplant. It’s a protein, which is found in cells, used to match a donor’s stem cells with that of the patient’s. However, this time Javier’s doctors went for a different method, called haploidentical transplant. In this process, the T-cells, the immune cells that are responsible for attacking foreign elements in the body were removed. So in Javier’s case, the T-cells could not attack the newly transplanted cells.

After seeing the immense improvement, Javier’s mother is very happy. Mrs Vivian Tan recalled the day when doctors told her that they might need to amputate his son’s leg. And now look at him. He is a healthy student of Primary 3, excelling in English and Chinese. His surgery was done in January and Javier was back in school in May. She said, “I am definitely relieved and thankful that he has his health back.”

Dr Rajat Bhattacharyya, the consultant at the department of paediatric sub-specialities at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) confirmed that the new transplant method is versatile enough to find anyone the suitable donor. However, the technique has been in existence since 2010. The National University Hospital (NUH) successfully conducted the procedure successfully on 38 children. The National University Cancer Institute, Singapore (NCIS) has administrated 8 transplants on adults. KKH doctors have treated 4 kids with this technique since October 2014. 10 adult leukaemia patients have been treated with this method by Singapore General Hospital (SGH) since 2004.

The number of patients undergoing haploidentical transplant is gradually increasing. And why not! Without the procedure, the chances of finding the most suitable donor might take several months or year. The haploidentical transplant offers hope for patients, who suffer from rare conditions and are left with minimum hope to live a healthy life ahead.

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Should you opt for a bone marrow transplant or put your faith in cord blood? We shed light on the debate.

The world over, doctors are seeing a rise in the cases of bone marrow cancer[1] (also known as multiple myeloma). Bone marrow cancers occur when the white blood cells in the marrow become cancerous (known as myeloma cells) and begin to accumulate. Soon, they overpower the normal cells and attack bone tissue, which damages the bones.

Typical symptoms of bone marrow cancer include localised pain in the bone developing into a consistent pain that comes in waves, fatigue, fever and weight loss.[2]

What is bone marrow transplantation?

The world over, doctors perform bone marrow transplants from healthy, matching marrow to treat this disease; this is done so that new stem cells may be cultivated. Marrow is extracted from the breast bone, or the hip, skull, spine or rib – these are found to contain stem cells that produce leukocytes, erythrocytes and platelets.

However, the operation is often expensive and highly invasive. A bone marrow biopsy can reveal the extent of the issue, and if a transplant is deemed necessary, a search for the right donor marrow begins.

What’s different about cord blood transplantation?

As opposed to this, the use of cord blood in transplantation to treat bone marrow cancer is rapidly gaining ground[3], especially due to its advantages over bone marrow aspiration and transplantation. Let us briefly see some of these advantages:

– While collected bone marrow must be used within a few hours, cord blood can be stored and used even up to 12 years after collection.

– A bone marrow donor must be prepped and conditioned for the transplant under doctor’s supervision. No such condition exists for cord blood transplantation, with required units of blood being procured as per need.

– The recipient and bone marrow donor must be perfect matches, while in the case of cord blood transplants, HLA-mismatched transplants are possible.

– Stem cells found in cord blood are considered to have higher regenerative proportion than those in bone marrow – this has major implications in the cure of this particular cancer.

– Bone marrow may be transplanted about two or more months after the donor is found – this is done to prepare the marrow for operation, as well as complete legal formalities. Meanwhile, cord blood transplants can happen in a matter of days, once matching units are procured and the paperwork is completed.

However, there are certain factors to take into consideration in the case of cord blood transplantation to treat bone marrow cancer. There are no chances for repeat transplantation from the same donor and there is a risk of a genetic disease being transplanted into the patient during surgery. Doctors say that the chances of cord blood rejection are higher as compared to those for bone marrow transplants. It is advisable to speak with your doctor about both options of transplantation before making a decision.

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