Earlier today the Medical College of Georgia, the state's health sciences university, announced it will be initiating the first FDA-approved clinical trial evaluating the use of a child’s own cord blood stem cells as a medical intervention for cerebral palsy. 

CBR is the only cord blood bank participating in this study.  Investigators designed the protocol with this requirement to ensure that all cord blood stem cells included in the study have been processed and stored consistently and with the same high level of quality.

The study will include 40 children, ages 2 to 12, whose cord blood has been stored with Cord Blood Registry. Children will begin the study with a neurological exam. Then, half of the study participants will receive an infusion of their own cord blood while the other half receives a placebo. Three months later, the children will be evaluated without physicians knowing which group received the stem cell infusion. Afterward, children who didn’t get the cord blood initially will receive an infusion. Children in the study will return three and six months later for evaluation, where researchers will assess their motor skills and neurological development.

The framework for this study is supported by a body of research which has shown that cord blood stem cells have the ability to migrate to injured areas in the brain and stimulate repair.  Researchers believe that the cord blood stem cells may help initiate a healing process in the brain that may not have occurred without intervention.  Early investigational work studying children with various forms of brain injury was pioneered at Duke University.  To date, 70 children whose cord blood was stored at CBR have been treated at Duke.  (See our blog on Chloe Levine’s progress)

For more information about this study, please call the MCG Section of Pediatric Neurology at 706-721-3371.  Based on these criteria, CBR clients who believe their child may be eligible for the study should contact the CBR Transplant Center at 888-536-8517.