Umbilical Cord Stem Cells Used to Treat Stroke

Stem Cell Research is currently a very controversial issue that dominates the media, political campaigns, and research facilities. This hot topic merges both religious and moral values with scientific and medical growth. "Is it right to take the life of what would be an innocent child?" Or a different position might be, “Sacrifice the few for the good of many”. Personally, my opinion on the topic is still in production, but either way; I find the controversy of stem cell research to be both fascinating and intimidating.

The figure above displays the ability of stem cells to differentiate into many different cells. This ability of stem cells is the reason why stem cells are so valuable to researchers in identifying potential treatments for nearly all human disorders.

In the article, Therapeutic Effects of Human Umbilical Cord Blood-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells, researchers performed an experiment on rats to examine the use of human umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hUCB-MSCs) to treat brain injuries such as stroke and neurodegenerative disorders. Researchers examined three groups over a one month period. All groups received an induced stroke by occlusion of the middle cerebral artery. The first group received no form of treatment for the stroke. The second group received hUCB-MSCs, inserted intrathecally by lumbar puncture (LP). Intrathecally simply means: the forcing of a liquid into a part, such as into the subcutaneous tissues. The third group received hUCB-MSCs inserted intravenously.

Rats receiving hUCB-MSCs intrathecally by LP, showed a significantly higher number of migrated cells within ischemic areas in the brain compared with animals receiving cells intravenously. More importantly, animals that received hUCB-MSCs regardless of insertion method, showed improved motor function, reduced ischemic damage, and better neurological recovery when compared with animals who received nothing. In particular, cells that were administered intrathecally survived and migrated into ischemic areas more extensively than any other group; then proceeded to differentiate into neurons and astrocytes.

These results indicate that intrathecally administered MSCs by LP could be a reasonable and valuable treatment option for brain injuries such as stroke and neurodegenerative disorders. This method will undoubtedly need to undergo much more extensive testing, before it is used. If it does make it past testing, it will then have to overcome the plethora of ethical hurdles that accompanies stem-cell research. Fortunately, stem cells research derived from human umbilical cords is more widely accepted than embryonic stem cell research. Hopefully, one day the method used in this experiment will be used to treat brain-damaged patients.

The article mentioned above can be viewed at http://stemcellres.com/content/pdf/scrt79.pdf

The picture shown above can be found at http://stemcells-research.net/2011/07/01/stem-cells-cord-blood/