development Archives - Stem Cell Banking Guide and Pregnancy Tips For New Parents

An Algorithm That Makes It Easier To See Stem Cell Development

Cordlife India — Fri, 05 Jan 2018 12:30:13 +0000

Stanford University School of Medicine researchers invented a new algorithm, Baxter Algorithm, to track adult stem cell development more accurately. The main idea was to overcome the difficulties in treating muscle related problems that eventually lead to aging.

According to the research, growing stem cells in the muscle, especially on the developed synthetic matrix, try to copy the elasticity of real muscle, thereby allowing them to retain their auto-renewing agents. Adult stem cells are already present in our body. They play a significant role in forming body tissues in muscles, blood and neurons. So far scientists struggled to create the stem cells in adequate quantity, needed for cell differentiation. Moreover, the stem cells lose some of their qualities immediately after they are kept in a culture dish. One of the qualities is self-renewal. It’s the ability to turn into another stem cell and at the same time the differentiating daughter cell.

This new technique would not only overcome the issue, but it would also help in revolutionizing the application of stem cells in different procedures. Helen Blau, a researcher at the Stanford’s Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine explained, “Cells don’t normally exist in contact with a rigid cell culture dish. They sit on soft tissue. By mimicking this environment we can really influence their function and allow them to self-renew in ways we’ve never been able to achieve before.”

The researchers have developed a new culture system in order to create a more comfortable and softer environment for the stem cells to grow. They used a material, called hydrogel, made of a platform of polyethylene glycol polymers with water. Once they decreased the quantity of polymer molecules, it was turned into a more flexible and more elastic surface.

The researchers let the stem cells grow in the hydrogel for a week. After a week, they found that the softer cells had more cells compared to the less-elastic gels. The scientists had then used the new algorithm to track the cell development automatically. They have found that the cells are not dividing faster. Rather more cells remain alive in the culture dish.

Blau said, “This in itself is a huge advance. Until now it’s been pretty impossible to do these studies without spending half a year or more manually scoring pictures or movies of cells in culture. Now we can figure out exactly how the cells divide and move, who begets who. As a result, we can begin to study all types of variables,” she added, “Clearly the cells grown on the more-elastic surfaces have better survival and self-renewing properties than those grown on standard tissue culture dishes. We conducted our experiments with muscle stem cells, but I expect this will be true for other types of adult stem cells as well.”

Apart from the new algorithm, the researchers continue their work to find out how this advancement would help in stem cells therapies to treat muscle-related problems like muscular dystrophy. Blau said, “Researchers really had no way to grow these cells in the laboratory before. These findings may allow us one day to replenish the muscles of patients with muscular dystrophy and other muscle-wasting diseases with healthy stem cells.”

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Cord Blood Banking – Why I Changed My Mind?

Cordlife India — Thu, 06 Oct 2016 07:05:54 +0000

“Congratulations! You’re having twins.” When Naren and Seema had been informed of this ecstatic news, they were over the moon. The couple had been trying to conceive for close to a year and finally knowing that they were about to be parents, of not just one but two babies were more than they could have asked for.

The expecting couple were very careful during the first trimester as they had been informed that chances for a miscarriage were highest during that time. They followed the doctor’s instructions to the‘t’. After the first three months were over, they decided it was time to inform their friends and family of their good news.

At a party celebrating their news, Seema’s friend Aditi enquired of the couple regarding their plans for cord blood banking. However, neither Naren nor Seema seemed to have much information on what it was. Aditi told them that the process of storing a newborn baby’s umbilical cord blood from which stem cells can be extracted and may be used to treat a wide variety of critical diseases and disorders like leukaemia, thalassemia, etc is basically what cord blood banking was all about. Seema was intrigued with the idea; however, Naren believed “it’s just a fancy marketing ploy by healthcare companies to get money from worried expectant parents. My babies will be fine. We don’t need to store anything for them.”

Even though Naren wasn’t interested in cord blood banking, Seema started her research online. The more she read, the more she learned of the benefits that cord blood banking could provide to her children. And not just for her twins, but any other blood relatives including the children that she could have in the future.

Eventually, she decided to ask her friend as to what had convinced her to opt for cord blood banking. Aditi said, “There is a history of sickle cell anaemia in my family. There were high chances that my baby too would have it. I was worried sick thinking of what life would be like for her if that happened. My doctor then told me about stem cell therapy and how quite a few clinical trials have been conducted which revealed that stem cell therapy can be used to treat sickle cell anaemia. That’s when I decided to go for it.”

Seema realised that she too wanted to ensure the safety of her babies’ future. She had read that cerebral palsy is quite common among twins and she decided that she wanted to be prepared in case her children too were affected by this ailment. That night she sat Naren down and explained her concerns to him, finally convincing him to change his mind since their babies’ health and wellbeing were their utmost priority.

Today, Seema and Naren are proud parents of two healthy baby boys, whose cord blood had been stored with a private cord blood banking facility since their birth.

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The Benefits Of Cells From Umbilical Cord Tissue

Cordlife India — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 09:30:50 +0000

Over the years scientific development in neonatal medical care has been revolutionary. One of the best advances in this domain has been in the form of cord blood and umbilical cord tissue banking. Between the baby and the mother, the umbilical cord acts as the lifeline as it comprises of many blood vessels, through which the umbilical cord blood pulses. The umbilical cord tissue, on the other hand, enables the blood vessels to weather the stress and the presence of the cord protects and supports them from bending.

The umbilical cord tissue comes with a high concentration of mesenchymal stem cells or MSCs. A research article states that “MSCs derived from the umbilical cord tissue, termed UCX, were investigated for their immunomodulatory properties and compared to bone marrow-derived MSCs (BM-MSCs), the gold-standard in immunotherapy.”[1]

According to available proprietary technology, UCX is being sequestered from the umbilical cord tissue; the methodology has proven to be quite strong, reproducible and will work adequately for stem cell banking. [2] It has been seen to produce a greater number of cells along with approximately 100% success rate with limited bacterial impurities.

In the present scenario, stem cells found in the cord blood are being used in the treatment of a number of blood-related diseases. However, there is a major hindrance as the volume of blood collected from the umbilical cord is low and can pose a drawback in terms of transplants. Studies and researches are currently underway to understand possible methods to increase the efficiency of cord blood transplants. Some investigations have delved into “ex vivo expansion of the hematopoietic stem cells before transplant, intensifying the homing of hematopoietic stem cells to the patient’s bone marrow, direct injections into the patient’s femoral bone, and transplants with multiple cord blood units” as stated in Banking Stem Cells From Umbilical Cord Tissue For Future Regenerative Medicine Applications. [3] A more direct technique is to make use of another stem cell population – MSCs found in the umbilical cord tissue – for co-transplantation with a cord blood unit, could well be the solution.

With technology to extract MSCs from cord tissue, the first step is to mince the tissue. This is further supported by an enzymatic breakdown process to “melt” away the cord tissue that in turn releases the native MSCs. An alternative way to preserve MSCs is to process the tissue and extract the cells thus securing them in a “treatment ready” form.

The clinical tests conducted on these cells have revealed affinity towards treating auto-immune diseases (diabetes, Crohn’s disease, graft-vs-host-disease), neurodegenerative disorders (Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s) and cardiovascular diseases (acute myocardial infractions, ischemia).[4]

Deciding to store the umbilical cord tissue will give you the opportunity to take advantage of the therapeutic potential of stem cells in regenerative medicine. Umbilical cord tissue stored in cord blood banks represents an additional source of stem cells that may have both immediate and future applications. However, the choice to store your child’s umbilical cord tissue is only available to you once, therefore, think carefully while making your decision.

Sources used:

[1] What Makes Umbilical Cord Tissue-Derived Mesenchymal Stromal Cells Superior Immunomodulators When Compared to Bone Marrow Derived Mesenchymal Stromal Cells? – R. N. Bárcia,1 J. M. Santos,1 M. Filipe,1 M. Teixeira,1 J. P. Martins,1 J. Almeida,1 A. Água-Doce,2 S. C. P. Almeida,2 A. Varela,2 S. Pohl,3 K. E. J. Dittmar,3 S. Calado,4 S. I. Simões,4 M. M. Gaspar,4 M. E. M. Cruz,4 W. Lindenmaier,3 L. Graça,2 H. Cruz,1 and P. E. Cruz1

[2] R. I. Ganchas Soares, M. C. Baptista Coelho, J. M. Silva Santos, et al., Isolation Method of Precursor Cells from Human Umbilical Cord, edited by INPI, Medinfar, ECBio, Lisbon, Portugal, 2008.

[3] Banking Stem Cells From Umbilical Cord Tissue For Future Regenerative Medicine Applications – Rouzbeh R. Taghizadeh, PhD, & Kyle J. Cetrulo

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