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Umbilical Cord Blood Found to Yield Embryo-Like Stem Cells

LONDON, August 18, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The hope of curing diseases using stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood has just received another boost. Scientists from the UK’s Kingston University and the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, have discovered a type of cell in the umbilical cord that shares the same properties as embryonic stem cells. Called “cord-blood-derived embryonic-like stem cells” (CBE), are not as flexible as the cells derived from embryos but much more so than cells from bone marrow, the usual source of ‘adult’ stem cells.

Colin McGuckin of Kingston University, calling his team’s discovery a “first,” said, “We have found a unique group of cells that bring together the essential qualities of both types of stem cells for the first time.”

CBE cells combine the medical advantages of adult and embryonic cells having some of the characteristic proteins or “markers,”  considered as identifiers of embryonic stem cells. The CBE’s also do not require a “feeder” layer of animal cells as a growth medium which has been found to contaminate stem cell lines.

The method used to culture the cells, using zero gravity technology first developed by NASA, has made it possible to create CBE cells at a much faster rate and in much greater quantities than is possible with embryo-derived cells.

The team has already induced the CBE cells to create liver tissue in the lab and further work is being done to test their ability to morph into other types of tissue. The group also claims to have induced the cells to form all three basic cell types that form all other kinds of tissue in the body.

This discovery follows on the heels of a recent one by researchers at the University of Toronto who found a source of stem cells, known as Wharton's Jelly, inside the umbilical cord.

Umbilical cords are routinely discarded after a child’s birth and there are few facilities in Canada for storing and maintaining the potentially life-giving cord blood. The number of cord ‘banks’ is growing in other places in the world, however, with eight in the UK.

Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/feb/05020904.html

Read coverage in BBC Newsonline:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4157362.stm

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