Did you know that nearly seven percent of 12th grade boys use or have used sterioids to build muscle mass and improve athletic performance?  And that these synthetic male hormones can surpress the testes ability to make sperm?  And how about recreational drugs?  Or frequent bike riding or racing on particularly thin bike seats? Or even cigarettes and cologne?

It is admittedly difficult to anticipate male factor infertility challenges when making a family is not the first thing on your mind.  But if you think Father’s Day is in your future, read up on how what you do today can impact how easy it is to become a dad in the future.

Back in March, we wrote about a Today Show segment about a baby who had been treated for cerebral palsy using his own cord blood.  Another child from the Duke University study treating cerebral palsy has been introduced to the media.  A little girl from Colorado also received the cord blood stem cell treatment.  Read the full story here.

I read an interesting article on using cord blood to restore hearing.  A group of scientists in Italy are researching the use of stem cells to repair hearing loss due to cochlear damage. 

The scientists have shown that following transplantation of human umbilical cord blood stem cells, a small number of the cells migrated to the cochlear and repaired sensory hair cells and neurons. 

Here is a link to the full press release.

Researchers in Italy have discovered a new way to administer cord blood transplants for leukemia patients.  Leukemia was one of the first diseases treated using cord blood transplants.  Traditionally, leukemia is treated with a cord blood transplant that is administered through a vein in the patient’s arm.  The Italian scientists attempted a new method of administration, injection directly into the patient’s bone. 

The study incorporated patients where a cord blood transplant was indicated, but the physicians were unable to identify a match of at least 6 HLA (the minimum currently required for a transplant).  Researchers encountered excellent levels of engraftment and low rates of graft-versus-host disease,  a concern with unrelated cord blood transplants.

If further researcher proves this treatment to be successful, it will improve the likelihood of leukemia patients being able to find a match in a public cord blood bank.  That will be especially beneficial for patients with mixed race or other unique backgrounds who currently find it nearly impossible to find a match in a public cord blood bank.   

Many parents we speak with understand that saving cord blood is a good thing, but don’t really understand why it is more beneficial than relying on the public cord blood bank.

The biggest reason why a baby’s own cord blood is better than donated cord blood is because of HLA matching.  HLA stands for human leukocyte antigen.  These are markers within the human body’s cells that tell the body which cells belong and which are invaders.  When using donated cord blood or bone marrow, surgeons require a match of at least six key markers.  When using a child’s own cord blood stem cells, a complete match is guaranteed.  This promotes engraftment of the cells while preventing host versus graft disease. 

An amazing article appeared in one of the blogs from Discover magazine.  Apparently, researchers have taken blood progenitor cells (found in cord blood and bone marrow) and used them to grow entire networks of blood vessels in mice.  The cells were implanted in mice and within seven days, a “vigorous network” of blood vessels formed and began conducting blood. 

All I can say is wow!  This could eventually eliminate the need for things like angioplasty and maybe even bypass surgery.  Since these are both difficult and dangerous surgeries, it would be so much better to just grow new blood vessels.

USA Today recently ran a story about a nine-month-old baby suffering from severe combined immunodeficiency.  This prevents his body from producing enough T cells to fight off disease.  the condition is often referred to as “bubble boy” disease because its victims are so vulnerable to infectious disease that they must live in protective bubbles. 

Granton Bayless was admitted to the hospital in March, suffering from pneumonia and respiratory synctial virus.  He was placed on a ventilator and given medicine to paralyze him so he wouldn’t hurt himself with the equipment. 

Following an exhaustive search for a bone-marrow or cord-blood match, Granton finally received an umbilical cord blood transplant at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo.  Cord blood was chosen because there was less of a chance that it would damage the surrounding tissue.  Since the transplant, Granton’s recovery has been awe inspiring.  A recent blood test showed that 86% of his white blood cells were donor cells.  In addition, Granton is producing “natural killer cells,” which are important for fighting infection. 

Risks still remain, particularly that the donor cells will begin to attack the baby’s own cells, but his parents are hopful.  Since the treatment, Granton has gained weight, become more active, and even more importantly, his parents are able to hold him again. 

Hopefully, this will become another happy ending brought about be an umbilical cord blood stem cell transplant. 

Stem cells are used to provide some amazing treatments for a number of different diseases.  Problems arise when what would be referred to as “quacks” claim amazing, unproven treatments using stem cells.  According to an article in Medical News Today, two pediatric eye surgeons recently expressed alarm over parents taking their children to mainland China for umbilical cord stem cell (CSC) transfusions.  These treatments can cost up to $50,000 or more and parents are led to believe that this is an effective treatment for optic nerve hypoplasia (ONH), a disease causing partial blindness at birth. 

According to the article, “Lawrence Tychsen, M.D., and Gregg Lueder, M.D., professors of ophthalmology and visual sciences at Washington University School of Medicine and pediatric ophthalmologists at St Louis Children’s Hospital, diagnose and treat dozens of children each year with ONH. They are concerned that the CSC reports will mislead many parents of children with ONH, who may bankrupt savings, go deeply into debt or organize fundraisers to pay for sham treatment.”

While parents have claimed improvement, there has been no objective documentation of improvement as a result of CSC treatments.  Without scientific research, it is impossible to tell how much improvement is from the treatment, how much is from natural development, and how much is placebo from wanting the treatment to work.  Besides the lack of evidence of these treatments working, the physicians are also concerned about the possibility of contamination for the injections. 

This is an interesting article that really lays out the argument against these treatments.  You can click here to read the entire article. 

Occasionally we will receive questions from parents looking for information on using stem cells to treat diseases that are not on the list of approved treatments or even disorders that are being researched here in the U.S.  I completely understand how these parents feel.  If my children had some type of problem, I would do anything within my power to try to fix it.  This need to help their children is driving many parents to explore unproven treatments overseas.  This is often referred to as stem cell tourism. 

Notice, I don’t say these parents are exploring experimental treatments.  In my mind, experimental treatments are being conducted in licensed laboratories using the standard scientific method.  These parents are traveling overseas to access treatments that have only anecdotal evidence that they work. 

The problem with relying on anecdotal evidence is two-fold.  First, since there is no control, there is no way to tell if any response is caused by the treatment or by other factors.  A child may improve as he ages, even without treatment.  The second concern is that without a scientific evaluation, parents might imagine the change because they want it so much.  After spending $50,000 for a treatment, it is hard to imagine that it wouldnt have worked.  Parents might see a change because they want it so much.

Parents need to be very careful when exploring treatment options for their children.  One study that did explore one of the stem cell tourism treatments examined seven patients who had stem cell transplants for spinal cord injuries.  Five of the patients had serious complications and none experienced significant improvement.  While such a small study is not perfect, it demonstrates that parents need to do a lot of research and weigh the advantages and disadvantages carefully for any treatment, but especially treatments overseas that have no evidence backing their responses.

Researchers at Kansas State University are developing a method to deliver cancer drugs directly to the tumor, more efficiently and limiting side effects for the patient according to a press release sent out yesterday.  Three respected scientists received a grant from the National Institute of Health. 

Apparently, the stem cells these researchers are using have a homing ability to travel towards tumors and other pathological lesions.   According to the release, “Hua is fabricating the nanoparticles and some of the small-molecule drugs for the research. The tiny capsules carrying the drugs are nanogels made up of two polymers. The nanogel has a dye molecule that allows the researchers to follow it through the body using a fluorescent microscope.”

“The nanogel capsules are loaded into a stem cell, which responds to proteins sent out by the cancer cells by homing to them, Hua said. As the stem cells reach the cancer tissues, another chemical that induces cell death of the stem cells will be administered — only stem cells are engineered to respond to this additional drug. This means that the nanogel-encapsulated drugs will be released from the stem cells directly at the cancer tissue.”

Hopefully, this research will eliminate some of the painful side effects that occur with chemotherapy.