Adult Stem Cells From Human Cord Umbilical Cord Blood Successfully Engineered To Make

[badshoe]

Adult Stem Cells From Human Cord Umbilical Cord Blood Successfully Engineered To Make Insulin

In a fundamental discovery that someday may help cure type1 diabetes by allowing people to grow their own insulin-producing cells for a damaged or defective pancreas, medical researchers here have reported that they have engineered adult stem cells derived from human umbilical cord blood to produce insulin.

more http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=72327

[Momof4gr8kids]

That's great news.

However our kids will still have to take immune supresants.

I hope someday they can figure that one out. I think learning to avoid the immune attack is the biggest factor to figure out.

Take care, Jamie

[caspi]

That is very, very exciting news! I personally think they should require, or make available, the opportunity to harvest and store umbilical cords at birth. I tried to do so when Cameron was born (in 1998) after I had read an article about it, but was told there was no where in our area that could store them.

[sam1nat2]

there are definitely places that will harvest and store cord blood now. When I had dd in 2003, they wanted 1200 just to donate the cord blood. I wasn't going to bank it, but wanted to donate it to some person who would receive the gift of life from it, but I couldn't afford to. To this day it bothers me how it is just thrown away every day, especially when people are waiting on this to save lives, esp cancer pts.

[WestinsMom]

We stored our youngest's cord blood in 2002. I can't remember what we paid but it is set for 20 years. I hope one day it will benefit Westin. That will be an investment that pays off!

[wellsfamily]

I'm pretty sure there was a post about this a while ago, but you can bank stem cells from baby teeth. I am thinking about doing this since I missed the cord blood opportunity. Less expensive too!

[sam1nat2]

how can you bank stem cells from baby teeth? i thought that stem cells were unique in that they are undiferentiated cells which are able to become any type of cell. Baby teeth are already teeth. That sure would be cool, do you have any other info on that??

[yeswe'rebothD]

It sounds like the teeth would only be usable for oral issues (like cleft palate) or possibly for nerve growth.

http://www.ada.org/public/media/releases/0506_release04.asp

The placenta was also another source recently hailed as usable for stem cells. Imagine if every woman were just asked during her myriad of pre-delivery questions: "would you like to donate your placenta?" I read that if only a few hundred thousand women would donate, there would be enough cells to supply the entire United States.

[mathcat]

I had everything set up for cord blood banking. Jacob was born by c-section. One of those where it needed to be done within the next hour or so but it was able to be calm and not an emergency where everything would need to be rushed (I was spiking a fever after 24+ hours of labor and 3 hours of pushing). Still, the doctor was not able to retrieve the cord blood. I don't know why she was unable. She was fairly new and I really suspect that her inexperience played a role in it. It is sad to know that we could have had something that could someday help Jacob. But I do know that even if we had the cord blood its ability to help Jacob would still be a big if. I have no choice but to accept where we are, help Jacob live the best life he can - with or without diabetes, raise money for a cure, and educate when possible. There is a moment of saddness when I see that maybe his cord blood could have helped but I require myself to move past.

Lori
Jacob (age 6)(dx 8-30-04)(pump 3-29-05)

[WillowBean]

I wanted to bank my first son's cord blood but the cost put it out of our league. For our second son I donated the blood - so it may be there if we need. If it has been used by the time we need it at least someone else was able to benifit from it. I would encourage everyone to let pregant woman know that they can donate there cord blodd at no charge to a public bank. The process must start at least 2 months before delivery.