Cord Blood May Replace
Fetal Cells in Brain Research

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters Health) - Stem cells collected from umbilical cord blood could be as useful as cells taken from embryos or aborted fetuses for developing new treatments for brain disorders, such as stroke and Parkinson's disease, according to new findings released here at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Stem cells can be collected from numerous places, including adult blood samples, blood from the umbilical cord of newborn babies, aborted tissue or from human embryos left over from in vitro fertilization procedures. They are primitive cells thought to hold great promise in the treatment of human disease, and the most promising are those collected at the earliest stages of life.

Experiments in mice with recent strokes show that when modified cord blood cells are injected intravenously, the cells travel to the damaged area of the brain. There they take up residence and begin to act as normal brain cells, compensating for some of the function lost to stroke.

These early experiments suggest that mice can regain about 50% of lost function after treatment, with near-normal function observed after injection for some specific tasks, said Dr. Paul R. Sanberg of the University of South Florida in Tampa.

Umbilical cord blood has scientific advantages over tissue harvested from elective abortions, Sanberg said. With about 4 million babies born in the United States each year, the supply is potentially abundant, although currently about 99% of the blood from umbilical cords is discarded. By contrast, he said obtaining sufficient cells from elective abortions can be quite difficult.

Cord blood cells also cause fewer graft-versus-host disease reactions--which is a potentially life-threatening immune reactions that can occur after a transplant--and fewer immune reactions generally, because the cells are so immature. Cord cells also proliferate rapidly until they become neuronal cells, which by nature do not divide.

For these mice experiments, the cells were pretreated with retinoic acid and other processes to make them more apt to behave as nervous system cells after injection.

In an unusual technique, the cells were injected into a vein instead of directly into the damaged brain region, through the skull, as Sanberg has done in the past with other kinds of cells. ``In theory they should go all over the place, but they tend to be more in the stroked area,'' he said.

Because cord blood cells are already being used to treat human diseases, such as rare leukemias in children, Sanberg said that human trials of cord blood to treat stroke might occur relatively soon, perhaps within the next two years.

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