US Drug Regulators approved a Therapy using Human Cord Blood Cells
The Food and Drug Administration has licensed Hemacord, a therapy that contains self-recreating cells similar to stem cells from human cord blood. Donated umbilical cord blood can be used to treat people with life-threatening diseases, including leukaemia, other types of cancer, and immune and genetic disorders. Cord blood transplantation is often an effective alternative for people in need of bone marrow transplantation who cannot find a suitable tissue-matched donor, either within their own family or from unrelated donors on bone marrow registries.
Human Placenta-Derived Cells is a cellular immune modulatory agent with significant therapeutic potential. These cells are novel cell population derived from normal, full-term human placental tissue. These cells are genetically stable, displaying a normal diploid chromosome count, normal karyotype and exhibit normal senescence after prolonged in vitro culture. This cell is capable of immunomodulation and suppresses T-cell proliferation and also exhibits immunomodulatory effects on other cell types involved in an immune response such as T-cell subsets, macrophages and dendritic cells.
Peripheral blood of adult species contains endothelial progenitor cells that participate in neovascularization, consistent with postnatal vasculogenesis. Abundant EPCs can be isolated from a relatively small volume of human umbilical cord blood, and that culture-expanded EPCs participate in endothelial network formation in vitro. Transplanted EPCs incorporated into sites of active neovascularization and formed capillaries among preserved skeletal myocytes in the ischemic hindlimb of athymic nude rats in vivo. Furthermore, transplantation of EPC quantitatively and effectively augmented neovascularization in response to hindlimb ischemia. Thus, human umbilical cord blood seems to be a novel source for EPCs, and the transplantation of cord blood-derived EPCs may become a useful strategy to modulate postnatal neovascularization.
According to Dr. Karen Midthun, director of FDA’s Centre for Biologics Evaluation and Research, “The use of cord blood hematopoietic (blood-forming) progenitor cell therapy offers potentially life-saving treatment options”. Bone marrow reconstitution using genetically-modified hematopoietic stem cells has been reported to confer resistance to inflammation and prevent renal injury in glomerulonephritis. Although this strategy has potentials for clinical use, taking hematopoietic stem cells from bone marrow is highly stressful for patients. In this regard, umbilical cord blood may be a useful alternative and, therefore, scientists focused on their suitability as a source of hematopoietic stem cells for transplantation-based therapy for glomerulonephritis. Cord blood has been used by doctors earlier for several treatments. Now the only difference is that FDA has decided that it needs to be licensed.
