Unlock Autism

More people are looking to store Umbilical Cord blood in hopes of having a magic formula for a cure if a tragic disease were to strike a family.

A few company’s have been collecting and storing cord blood for the past 6 years.  Here is an interesting article on the subject. In my view, its worth the cost. how could you not store something which could save your life down the road or help to cure a disease such as Autism..?

Should you wish that your baby is credited with the title of a Good Samaritan as soon as he is born? If so, one way is to donate blood from your baby’s umbilical cord. The umbilical cord is usually considered waste after a baby is born (once separated from the mother). The umbilical cord stump peels off the body of the newborn baby within 12-15 days of the baby being born.

But, the umbilical cord can be put to good use by taking blood from the umbilical cord before discarding it. This blood can be extremely helpful to leukemia patients and patients of other life-critical diseases. Umbilical cord blood is different from embryo blood in the sense that this blood is taken from the umbilical cord and the placenta after the birth of the baby.

Why is cord blood critical to various medical functions?

* Cord blood is extremely useful for individuals/patients who need a transplant done quickly. Cord blood is easily accessible as they are stored in units and ready-for-use.

* Many surgeries require patients to find a matched bone marrow donor. Bone marrow blood, especially one matching the donor and the acceptor’s RH level are extremely difficult to find. Cord blood can be used as an effective replacement in these cases.

* Many individuals/communities have a very rare group of blood RH. Patients from such communities find it increasingly difficult to find blood matching their blood indicators. Cord blood can be used to donate blood to these patients as they do not require to be matched with the acceptor’s blood indicator.

Umbilical cord blood – Use in transplant surgeries

Cord blood considered suited for transplantation purposes are typed on tissues, frozen and stored. A liquid Nitrogen refrigerator is used in sub-zero temperatures to store the cord blood for transplantation.

What factors are considered for patients needing transplant surgeries?

* Type of transplant required – Use of cord blood in transplant surgeries is extremely dependant on the type of transplantation required to be done. Cord blood cells are extremely useful in treating certain life-threatening diseases, not all of them.

* Adequate blood forming cells – Cord blood units having inadequate blood forming cells are not considered for transplant surgeries. A cord blood unit having umbilical cord blood is considered effective for transplantation purposes only if it has adequate blood forming cells.

Close to 6000 patients suffering from leukemia, lymphoma and other life-threatening diseases are constantly in need of cord blood to meet their blood acceptance needs. Cord blood donated by a newborn baby is used for bone marrow surgeries or cord transplants.

A simple act of donating umbilical cord blood can prove to be a life-saver for many patients. Irrespective of the race of the baby, the mother can decide to donate the umbilical cord blood as early as the 34th week into pregnancy.

Share It

Hide Sites

Research: “The Myelin Project”:

The exciting work of researchers funded by The Myelin Project, whose goal is to remyelinate the human central nervous system, may someday have benefits for autistic children. Only time will tell if a specific area of damaged neurons can be found and potentially repaired with stem cells.

The first human trial, conducted by Dr. Timothy Vollmer at Yale University School of Medicine, will attempt to transplant myelin-forming Schwann cells into the brains of five patients with multiple sclerosis. The cells will be obtained from the sural nerves of the patients themselves. Although Schwann cells normally produce myelin in the peripheral nervous system, several recent experiments conducted on rodents and cats have shown these cells have the ability to remyelinate in the CNS as well.

While multiple sclerosis is a long way from autism, there is discussion of anti-myelin antibodies in autism, and there is talk of inflammatory processes involving myelin. Whether this technology can help autism if it works for multiple sclerosis is anybody’s guess, but it’s exciting to wonder about.

The Myelin Project funds a Cell Culture Unit at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where Dr. Su-chun Zhang continues to generate cultures with ever-higher percentages of human oligodendrocyte precursors (OPs). Oligodendrocytes are the cells that normally myelinate the CNS. If obtainable in sufficient quantity, they would provide an alternative to Schwann cells for transplantation. The Unit has developed a method to track transplanted OPs by MRI, labeling the cells with iron particles. In another recent experiment, Dr. Baron-Van Evercooren and colleagues were able to remyelinate as many as 55% of the nerves in monkey spinal cord lesions by transplanting the monkeys’ own Schwann cells. These initial positive results, however, have not been confirmed in subsequent attempts. She suspects that the viral labels she used to distinguish the transplanted cells caused them to die. She is trying again without viral labeling. If successful, this experiment would prove that CNS remyelination is feasible in higher animals.

Several researchers funded by The Myelin Project have injected myelin-forming cells into the ventricles of the brain of experimental animals and have shown that these cells were transported by the cerebrospinal fluid to all regions of the brain. This makes it more likely that injected cells will travel to where the myelin needs to be repopulated.

The Myelin Project has funded Dr. Oliver Br�stle of the University of Bonn, Germany, and Dr. Evan Snyder of Harvard University to work with neural stem cells (NSC). These are self-renewing, multipotent cells, capable of differentiating into the major types of neural cells, including oligodendrocytes. One of their most potentially beneficial properties is their tendency to respond to signals in the CNS environment. In CNS diseases, these signals guide the cells to damaged areas. Second, they prompt them to differentiate into the specific cell type needed for the repair — neurons in nerve diseases like Parkinson’s and oligodendrocytes in myelin disorders like the leukodystrophies and multiple sclerosis.

NSCs are typically of fetal origin, but have also been found in the adult brain. NSCs can be multiplied in culture indefinitely as an “immortal” cell line. They could eventually provide an inexhaustible source of myelin-forming cells, eliminating the need for obtaining them from fresh tissue. Several research centers are now testing human NSCs to verify their safety and in particular to rule out any risk of their becoming cancerous. If this testing concludes favorably, then prospective myelin repair strategies could take a two-fold approach. NSCs would be injected into the ventricular system where the cerebrospinal fluid would circulate them to all parts of the CNS. Local signals would then come into play, guiding the cells to the specific demyelinated areas.

The Myelin Project has also funded Dr. Robin Franklin of the University of Cambridge to study olfactory ensheathing cells, a third type of myelin-producing cell. He has perfected a technique for demyelinating the area of rat brain connecting the cerebellum with the brain stem. He subsequently remyelinated the area by transplanting rat Schwann cells, which adds to the body of evidence in favor of Schwann cell transplantation as a way of repairing CNS myelin lesions.

The Myelin Project has also funded Dr. Inderjit Singh of the Medical University of South Carolina to study the use of Lovastatin in the treatment of myelin disorders. The drug corrects the biochemical defect of adrenoleukodystrophy, lowering the levels of very long chain fatty acids in plasma. Preliminary studies with an animal model of MS have confirmed Lovastatin’s ability to block the induction of cytokines, substances responsible for the inflammation of the CNS. We know that the levels of very long chain fatty acids and of some cytokines are elevated in autism. I am wonderijng already if Lovastatin might be worth trying for children with documented elevated very long chain fatty acids and elevated cytokines.

These studies present exciting possibilities for the future for treating neurodegenerative diseases. They may eventually have relevence for such diverse conditions as autism, cerebral palsy, and CNS vaccine damage syndromes. Time will tell.

find more at http://www.healing-arts.org/children/cell.htm

Share It

Hide Sites

Original Article Found on TranslatingAutism.com You can find a more complete description and review of this paper based on the press coverage here. Thus, I’ll limit this to a micro summary and a few related thoughts. The researchers wanted to experimentally test the hypothesis that exposure to maternal neuronal antibodies (IgG) during the PREnatal period could be one of the causes of at least some variants of Autism. To test this hypothesis the researchers exposed 4 prenatal rhesus monkeys with IgG taken from human mothers who had multiple children with ASD. They also exposed 5 prenatal monkeys with IgG taken from human mothers who did not have any children with Autism. Once the monkeys were born, these two groups were also compared to monkeys that had not been exposed to any antibodies. The researchers found that the monkeys that had been exposed to the antibodies of human mothers of children with autism engaged in much higher levels of unique whole-body stereotypic behaviors and less social contact with familiar peers, than did the monkeys exposed to IgG of mothers of typically developing kids or monkeys not exposed to any antibodies. Furthermore, these stereotypic behaviors increased when the monkeys were exposed to novel environments or peers. As I understand how controversial this paper will be for some people, I want to say that the authors are very clear and explicit in stating that this is NOT an animal model of autism. That is, they did not intent to say that they were able to “cause” autism in these monkeys via exposure to IgG. Instead, their data presents some evidence that exposure to IgG before birth leads to unique patterns of stereotypic behaviors, similar to those observed in some children with ASD. This is a very small preliminary study, but the results are fascinating in that it will guide future research to explore exposure to IgG as a potential cause (one of many) of ASD.

Seems plausible since the IgG antibodiy can get through the placenta to protect the baby..but much more work needs to be done first. For more on IgG http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IgG

Share It

Hide Sites