Discarded umbilical cord can be used to heal brain damage

Discarded umbilical cord can be used to heal brain damage
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

WASHINGTON, FEB 20: The umbilical cord, which could only be discarded after child-birth, may now be used to provide a very important tissue called stem cells which work as a resource material for fixing brain damage caused by strokes and other ills such as Alzheimer’s disease, according to a researcher.

Paul R Sanberg of the University of South Florida told a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco yesterday that though details needed to be worked out, he may try the approach on patients within the next year or two.

The other source of this primitive tissue, stem cells, were only aborted fetuses or fertlility clinics’ discarded embryos. Since anti-abortion groups oppose fetal and embryonic stem cell research, scientists could not use these sources.Use of this material will, therefore, be free of ethical concerns of using fetal tissue.

In animal experiments, Sanberg said, the cells appear to speed recovery greatly after strokes. They work with a simple infusion into the bloodstream without the need for direct implantation into the brain.

Sanberg explained that he and his colleagues removed stem cells from cords, then used retinoic acid and growth harmones to transform them into miniature nerve cells. They then injected 3 million of the cells into the bloodstreams of rats that had suffered strokes.

In experiments on about 60 animals, those given the cells recovered 80 percent after their strokes compared with 20 percent of untreated rats.