The Stem Cell Source : Cord Blood Regsitry

Cord Blood Stem Cells Treat Spinal Cord Injury in Animal Study

PublicAffairs — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 16:20:00 GMT

A study published this month in the journal Spine, found that stem cells from a human newborn umbilical cord can improve neurologic function of rats after an acute spinal cord injury.

The rats treated in the study with cord blood stem cells experienced a significantly improved recovery of locomotor function (the ability to move from place to place) over a six week period compared to untreated rats. In addition, six weeks after treatment, the injured area was noticeably smaller in the treated animals than in the untreated animals.

Most spinal cord injuries are compression injuries, in which the damaged nerve cells in the spinal cord are still intact, but have lost a coating called myelin that helps them transmit signals from the brain to the rest of the body, leaving them nonfunctional. Lost myelin does not regularly grow back on its own following an injury, and so the goal of this study was to determine if cord blood stem cells could help initiate its regeneration in rats with compression injuries to the spinal cord.

Research to date has shown increasing evidence that stem cells from cord blood have the ability to help with repairing and regenerating other cells in the body by helping to regulate inflammation, assisting with the growth of new blood vessels (angiogenesis) and promoting cellular growth by secreting proteins and other growth factors.

This study adds to the growing body of evidence that supports the therapeutic use of cord blood stem cells for nerve repair.

CBR Only Cord Blood Bank to Participate in First FDA-Approved Cerebral Palsy Stem Cell Trial

PublicAffairs — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 18:37:00 GMT

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.

18 Years of Experience Matter!

PublicAffairs — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 16:43:00 GMT

On the path from birth to maturity, reaching one’s 18th birthday is a very significant milestone. It’s an important achievement that validates, among many things, the training, development and experience necessary to take on life’s challenges.

This year, CBR officially marks our 18th anniversary. Not only were we the first family bank to store newborn stem cells for future use, but we continue to be the global leader and innovator in cord blood banking.

Our success is driven by a philosophy of continuous improvement built on a foundation of unparalleled industry experience. And experience matters, especially in an industry like ours that represents a rapidly evolving area of science and technology.

Today, the operations in CBR’s state-of-the-art, 80,000 square foot laboratory facility – the largest in the world – are governed by hundreds of written standard operating procedures (SOPs). As the industry pioneer, we didn’t have a roadmap or a manual we could copy. We wrote the book – literally.

Over time, other banks have followed us. Some are still in business, but others are not. Some are just beginning to learn the complexity of running their own laboratory. The process of preserving newborn stem cells from cord blood is delicate and complex. It takes experience to do it well, and at CBR we do it very well. In fact, CBR’s proprietary collection and processing technologies enable us to have the highest cell recovery rate in the industry, so we are able to preserve more stem cells for medical use than any other family bank. And, after 18 years, we’ve successfully processed the cord blood of more than 300,000 newborns.

In this blog, we talk a lot about why newborn stem cells from the umbilical cord are unique. It’s also important to understand what makes CBR unique. Experience matters.

Every Client Experience Must Be Golden

PublicAffairs — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 21:21:00 GMT

Since CBR's inception, our founders have insisted that one overarching rule guide everything we do: Treat others the way you'd like to be treated. It's simple, but it's Golden. In fact, we believe this is the only way to treat people. Every CBR employee strives to make sure we live up to this golden promise.

How are we doing? We ask every new client to give us a report card on their experience with us. We literally get hundreds of report cards a week. On average, more than 99 percent of our clients report that they're satisfied. That's a great number... but from our perspective, it means we have a bit more work to do. At CBR, every client experience must be golden.