Why is it important to preserve just cord blood stem cells?

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Over the years, cord blood is considered to be one of the most valuable, if not the most valuable source of stem cells, and preservation of umbilical cord blood in the developed world is compared with biological insurance for the child for life in the event of a serious illness.

However, as of today it is known that during almost the entire human life stem cells may be isolated from many other tissues (bone marrow, peripheral blood, adipose tissue, dental pulp, etc.), erudite people often ask, why it is necessary to save umbilical cord blood, which may not be needed, if when necessary, the same cells can be obtained from other sources.

Asked a similar question, the researchers conducted a series of research whose aim was to elucidate whether stem cells lose their clonogenic and proliferative properties with age, as well as how the disease itself affects the nature of stem cells. The results of these studies have shown that the regenerative potential of stem cells indeed significantly reduced during aging, also with age length of telomeres in the chromosomes of stem cells gets shortened, and increased risk of mutations occurs…

isscr2015-lockupAnd at the 13th annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research – ISSCR, which took place on June 24-27, 2015 in Stockholm (Sweden), Dr. Francisco J. Rivera et al (Austria) in the report, “Aging influences the mesenchymal stem cell-derived oligodendrogenic and remyelination activities: consequences for multiple sclerosis,” presented the results of their research on the therapeutic efficacy of young and old stem cells.

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It is known that multiple sclerosis affects oligodendrocytes are myelin loss occurs, which leads to serious neurological consequences. Mesenchymal stem cells possess immunomodulating and neuroprotective properties and enhance differentiation of progenitor cells into oligodendrocytes. Therefore, cell therapy is seen as a promising method for the treatment of multiple sclerosis, a serious illness, which makes its debut at a young age and progresses throughout the life of the patient. Thus, it is important to know whether mesenchymal stem cells preserve their prooligodendrogenic activity with age. To elucidate this, scientists isolated progenitor cells of the nervous system and mesenchymal stem cells from young (2 months) and old (17-20 months) animals and expanded them in vitro.

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Obtained results showed that only young mesenchymal stem cells stimulated endogenous remyelination in demyelinated lysolecithin-induced slices. Thus, researchers concluded that with age mesenchymal stem cells derived remyelinogenic activity decreases, what respectively results in reduced remyelinisation potential of the cells.

Currently, hopes of scientists to overcome diabetes mellitus and to cope with diabetic complications, particularly nonhealing wounds, diabetic foot, angiopathy, and others are connected with stem cell therapy. For autologous therapy of adult patients who have no reserve of umbilical cord blood, stem cells for therapy purposes most often are isolated from bone marrow, adipose tissue, peripheral blood. However, in recent years stem cells were shown to be very sensitive to the effects of hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) and hypoxia, which always occur in case of diabetes. Effect of hyperglycemia and hypoxia on the activity of stem cells, in particular, were discussed at the 13th meeting of ISSCR-2015 by the scientists Aurore Lafosse et al. from Belgium, in the report “Impact of diabetes on dermal fibroblasts and keratinocytes: potential of adipose-derived stem cells in cell therapy for chronic diabetic wounds”.

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The data of other authors also point out that biological properties of stem cells isolated from patients with diabetes, are inferior to those of the cells stored in the period when the person is young and healthy.

The youngest stem cells of different populations that have not yet been subjected to the adverse effects of environmental factors, lifestyle and human diseases can be obtained from umbilical cord blood collected in the first minutes of life! Do not miss your chance!

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