The device increases the productivity of recovery of stem cells from umbilical cord blood

Graduate students at John Hopkins Medical School have invented a system to increase the amount of stem cells from the placenta and umbilical cord in newborns, which can better treat patients with leukemia and cancer. Lymphatic system letters, and other blood diseases with good quality cells.

Experiments are in the testing phase, but the initial results are promising. Students are granted patents for this technique and established a company called TheraCord LLC, developing new technologies in the future that will be widely used in the Department of Obstetrics in many hospitals. Practitioners believe that the need to use this system is very clear.

The umbilical cord blood, taken from the umbilical cord and placenta after the birth of the child, is an abundant source of stem cells , however, more than 90 percent of the number of cells cannot be recovered and must be removed. The team members wrote in a project report that, ' one of the main causes of umbilical cord blood removal is often due to the absence of an appropriate recovery method .'

Practitioners call their easy-to-use invention, the CBx System (CBx System) that can overcome these drawbacks.

Students of John Hopkins Medical School with CBx System.

When a child is born some families have to pay for the personal recovery and storage of umbilical cord blood, in case the stored blood stem cells are needed for future treatment. When families do not choose this method, this amount of blood will be discarded as a medical waste. But in 180 hospitals that cooperate with cord blood banks, new mothers can donate cord blood to stem cells that can be used to regenerate the immune system for patients. serious disease such as blood cancers: leukemia, lymphatic cancer, and myeloma.

According to practitioners at John Hopkins, the current method of collecting cells from cord blood does not work well because it depends too much on gravity. The National Marrow Donor Program shows that 50% of the blood collected in this way will have enough stem cells stored for use in transplants. Another organization, the National Cord Blood Program, says only 40% of the collected blood is eligible for transplants. Even when this method is successful, practitioners say, the average amount collected is only enough to treat children but not enough to treat adults, calculated according to the required cell dosage.

To solve this problem, practitioners developed a new recall method from the previous year;This method uses mechanical force and a chemical solution to separate and recover more stem cells from the internal blood vessels and umbilical cord .

' This is important for two reasons ,' said James Waring, a member of the research team. ' First, we believe that this system recovers enough cells in every birth that can be applied. Stem cell therapy for adult patients - people need more cells . '

Furthermore, in the initial placenta and umbilical cord test at John Hopkins Hospital, the team's device recovered 50% more stem cells than the traditional gravity system, the students said.

" We think this system will increase the number of successful cord blood withdrawals, which means it can be treated for many patients ," Waring said.

Chiang, a member of the group, said: ' Our next step is to optimize the system so that it recovers more stem cells . Based on previous experiments using similar techniques, we believe that it can be recovered two to five times the amount of cell recovered by current gravity techniques. Another important goal is to make the system easy to use for hospital operators . '

Practitioners learned about the need for a highly effective stem cell recovery method in a master's course, when they collaborated with doctors at the hospital to learn about newly requested tools and equipment. urgency.

Edith Gurewitsch, professor at the Department of Obstetrics and Medical Engineering at John Hopkins School of Medicine, who first discovered the need for effective cord blood recovery. Agreeing to be a consultant for the research team, she had instructions on the treatment process and conducted experiments except the system design. In a patent, Gurewitsch is recognized as a co-inventor of the CBx System technology.