STEM CELLS

We all wonder what the future holds for us and our children. When you make the choice to bank stem cells you are

giving your family hope for future health & wellbeing.

Regenerative medicine is advancing all the time. In years to come the stem cells

present in cord blood & tissue, baby teeth and even excess fat could be used

to treat conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and some cancers.

What are STEM Cells?

Stem cells are cells found in most, if not all, multi-cellular organisms. They are characterized by the ability to renew themselves through mitotic cell

division and differentiating into a diverse range of specialized cell types. Research in the stem cell field grew out of findings by Canadian scientists Ernest A.

McCulloch and James E. Till in the 1960s.

STEM Cells types:

• Stem cells (center ones) can develop into any cell type. They are valuable as research tools and might, in the future, be used to treat a wide range of diseases.

Collecting and storing STEM Cells

A ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME OPPORTUNITY

Umbilical cord blood stem cells are collected at the moment the umbilical cord between the mother and child is cut. The collection is easy, over in a few minutes and completely harmless to both the mother and child. It does not affect natural sequences of a birth at all and in contrast to the collection of adult stem cells, no invasive procedure is needed.

  Following birth, as we begin to grow, the stem cell groups once found in the umbilical cord blood start to change. Therefore, the time of birth is a one time opportunity to harvest these unique cells. Cryopreservation allows storing them for future use. 

Potential treatmentsBrain damageStroke and traumatic brain injury brain degeneration, such as in Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseaseCancerSpinal-cord injuryA team of Korean researchers reported on November

25, 2003, that they had transplanted multipotent adult stem cells from umbilical cord blood to a patient suffering from a spinal-cord injury and that following the procedure, she could walk on her own, without difficulty. The patient had not been able to stand up for roughly 19 years. For the unprecedented clinical test, the scientists isolated adult stem cells from umbilical cord blood and then injected them into the damaged part of the spinal cord.

• Heart damage• Several clinical trials targeting heart disease have shown

that adult stem-cell therapy is safe, effective, and equally efficient in treating old and recent infarcts.

• Hematopoiesis (blood-cell formation)• The specificity of the human immune-cell repertoire is

what allows the human body to defend itself from rapidly adapting antigens

• Baldness• Missing teeth• Deafness• Blindness and vision impairment• Since 2003, researchers have successfully transplanted

corneal stem cells into damaged eyes to restore vision.

• Orthopedics• Wound healing• Infertility• Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis• Neural and behavioral birth defects• Diabetes

For the first time in the country, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, has used stem cell therapy on 85

patients suffering from Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM) and met with reasonable success.

DCM is a condition in which the patient’s heart becomes enlarged and cannot pump blood to its full capacity. In most cases, the patients

have no hope for survival except await a heart transplant.Dr Sandeep Seth, associate professor at the Department of

Cardiology, AIIMS, said half of the 85 patients responded well to the treatment and their quality of life had definitely improved.

The success of just such an important medical use is a cord blood transplant from a sample held by Future Health into a 16-year old boy suffering from Fanconi’s Anemia. This is a life-threatening condition that affects the bone marrow’s ability to make healthy blood cells. Doctors had been unable to find a bone marrow match but the cord blood stem cells from his baby sister, born in 2010, proved to be a perfect match for the teenager. The operation was a complete success and after just over a month in hospital Laith went home with his blood counts back to healthy levels and looking forward to a enjoying a full and active life – something neither he nor his parents had thought possible.

More successful stem cells

treatments are showed below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIAZE2UDtTY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H5LoiAIKBA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBae8edTxxk

In the beginning there is the stem cell; it is the origin of an organism's life. It is a single cell that can give rise to progeny that differentiate into any of the specialized cells of embryonic or adult tissues. The advancement of science has transformed our lives in ways that would have been unpredictable just a half-century ago. Whether stem cell research will have a similar effect remains to be determined, but the promise is so great that it seems wise to consider seriously how best to further such research in a manner that is sensitive to public sensibilities.