Lifeline Cord Blood

WASHINGTON — Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation was associated with improvements in outcome compared to cyclophosphamide in patients with diffuse cutaneous systemic scleroderma, according to study results presented at the American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting.

Joost F. Swart, Eveline M. Delemarre, Femke van Wijk, Jaap-Jan Boelens, Jürgen Kuball, Jacob M. van Laar, Nico M. Wulffraat

Nature Reviews Rheumatology, 13, 244–256, (2017)

Autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is the only treatment that is able to induce long-term, drug-free and symptom-free remission in several refractory autoimmune rheumatic diseases. Over 3,000 HSCT procedures for rheumatic and nonrheumatic severe autoimmune diseases have been performed worldwide.

Transplanting patients with blood stem cells that originate from their own bone marrow can induce the remission of life-threatening, treatment-resistant lupus, according to a study that took place at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago

13/02/2006

Transplanting patients with blood stem cells that originate from their own bone marrow can induce the remission of life-threatening, treatment-resistant lupus, according to a study that took place at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago

The operation will be carried out at Newcastle General Hospital. Doctors are carry out a rare and dangerous cord-blood transplant in an effort to save the life of a nine-month-old Tyneside boy. George Young has spent all but five days of his life in hospital. Doctors have given the youngster just a few months to live unless he has the pioneering treatment.

Doctors on Tyneside have carried out a rare cord blood transplant in an effort to save the life of a nine-month-old boy. George Young has spent all but a few days of his life in a sterile environment in hospital. Doctors, who gave the youngster just a few months to live, have carried out the pioneering treatment at Newcastle General Hospital.

A baby-girl born in Athens last week will become the donor of stem cells taken from the umbilical cord that will be transplanted to her 4-year-old brother suffering from chronic granulomatous disease, a congenital heterogeneous immunodeficiency disorder resulting from the inability of phagocytes to kill ingested microbes, resulting in increased susceptibility to severe infections that ultimately leads to early death...

Action Points

• Umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cell transplantation in a series of patients with active and refractory systemic lupus erythematosus appeared to be safe and produce clinical responses in most patients during a year of follow-up.
• There were relapses in some responders, necessitating repeat infusions.

Mesenchymal stem cell transplantation is showing promise as a treatment for refractory systemic lupus erythematosus, researchers have reported.

In a multicenter study conducted in China that included 40 patients who had persistent disease despite aggressive treatment with cyclophosphamide, mycophenolate mofetil, leflunomide, and/or high-dose steroids, 60% of those given umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells had a major or partial clinical response during a year of follow-up, according to Lingyun Sun, MD, of Nanjing University Medical School, and colleagues.

In a study published online last May in JAMA Pediatrics, researchers reported that babies who got all or most of their milk from the breast had microbiota most like their mothers’.

Dr. Grace M. Aldrovandi of the University of California, Los Angeles, and co-authors noted that “breast milk bacteria that seed the gut first influence and select for bacteria that follow, leaving a footprint that can be detected even in adulthood.” These organisms are associated with a reduced risk of developing asthma, they wrote.

Researchers at UCLA announced today that they had cured 18 children who were born with the so-called Bubble Baby disease, a genetic disorder that leaves the young sufferers without a working immune system, putting them at risk of death from infections, even the common cold.