Cord Blood and Regenerative Medicine
Regenerative medicine is a field of medical research developing treatments to repair or re-grow specific tissue in the body. Because a person’s own (autologous) cord blood stem cells can be safely infused back into that individual without being rejected by the body’s immune system - and because they have unique characteristics compared to other sources of stem cells - they are an increasing focus of regenerative medicine research.
Research in this area that has the potential to revolutionize medicine is advancing rapidly, and it is difficult for professional medical societies, and other resources that expectant parents turn to for information, to keep pace.
Physicians and researchers are making significant progress evaluating the safety and efficacy of umbilical cord blood stem cells for therapeutic uses far beyond their uses for cancers and blood disorders.
The use of cord blood stem cells in treating conditions such as brain injury and Type 1 Diabetes is already being studied in humans, and earlier stage research is being conducted for treatments of stroke, and hearing loss.
Current estimates indicate that approximately 1 in 3 Americans could benefit from regenerative medicine, and children whose cord blood stem cells are available for their own potential use could be among the first to benefit from new therapies as they become available. With autologous (the person’s own) cells, there is no risk of the immune system rejecting the cells, so physicians and researchers are only performing these potential cord blood therapies on children who have their own stem cells available.
Researchers are exploring the use of cord blood stem cells in the following regenerative medicine applications:
Read more about this topic: Cord Blood Bank
Famous quotes containing the words cord, blood and/or medicine:
“one is in a shoe factory cursing the machine,
one is at the aquarium tending a seal,
one is dull at the wheel of her Ford,
one is at the toll gate collecting,
one is tying the cord of a calf in Arizona,
one is straddling a cello in Russia....”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“Now it is time to call attention
to our bed, a forest of skin
where seeds burst like bullets.
We are in our room. We are in
a shoe box. We are in a blood box.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“Authority, though it err like others,
Hath yet a kind of medicine in itself,
That skins the vice o’ the top.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)