Umbilical cord blood that was once used only for bone marrow transplants in children could one day help adults as well.
Scientists have known for several years that umbilical cord blood left over in the placenta could be saved and used for bone marrow transplants in children. Dr. Joanne Kurtzberg is director of the pediatric stem cell transplant program at Duke University Medical Center and the first surgeon ever to perform a bone marrow transplant using cord blood.
“Cord blood does contain blood stem cells which can substitute for bone marrow in a bone marrow transplant, and can also provide a kind of correction on genetic diseases for kids who have enzyme deficiences that affect the development of the brain or the liver or bones or cartilage.”
Kurtzberg says one of the benefits of cord blood is that it does not have to be a perfect match to be successful in a child’s bone marrow transplant.
“There’s newer work showing that for adults it can also work when there are enough matching cells in the cord blood unit for that particular adult.”
This is important, Kurtzberg says, because as many as 75 percent of adults needing bone marrow transplants cannot find a matching donor. I’m Tom Britt for Medminute.
“Cord blood is more tolerant of a new person and we don’t know really the exact reason for that, but because of that it can be used in a situation where it doesn’t match completely. For that reason, patients who can’t find a fully matching bone marrow donor can find a partially matched cord blood donor and go on to a transplant.”