Cord Blood Saves Girl's Life From Aplastic Anemia
Cord Blood Saves Girl's Life From Aplastic Anemia
The 7-year-old girl, Lin (pseudonym), was admitted to a hospital after experiencing a fever. One week later, a blood test revealed a dangerous drop in her blood platelet count. Then, the devastating news arrived: she was diagnosed with aplastic anemia, a rare but serious blood condition that occurs when the bone marrow fails to produce enough new blood cells. Lin had no time to wait for a bone marrow donor match, so her parents found her a matching allogeneic cord blood sample instead. Since the stem cells in cord blood are more naïve, the process of matching is therefore way simpler. One month after the stem cells derived from the cord blood were injected into Lin's bloodstream, she was transferred out of intensive care without any adverse effects observed during the recovery.
Source : https://mp.weixin.qq.com/
Cryolife Expert Presents at AABB
Cryolife Expert presents at AABB
On behalf of Cryolife, our Deputy Laboratory Director, Dr. Daniel Tam Chuen-Chu, presented his insightful research at the 2024 Annual Meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Blood & Biotherapies (AABB), an esteemed international organization dedicated to developing operational protocols for blood banks.
Dr. Tam’s article, titled "A Comparative Study: Microbial Contamination in Umbilical Cord Blood Before and After Prolonged Cryopreservation," was published in Transfusion, AABB’s peer-reviewed journal. This study explores the varying resistance levels of common bacterial strains to prolonged cryopreservation, utilizing contaminated cord blood units collected between 1998 and 2008, a period when cryopreservation techniques were still emerging. The research revealed an overall 34.7% reduction in microbial contamination after prolonged cryopreservation. While Escherichia coli displayed particular resistance, other strains exhibited low recovery rates, and some even disappeared entirely.
This research underscores Cryolife’s commitment to enhancing the safety and efficacy of cord blood banking through continuous improvement in storage procedures. Understanding which strains demonstrate greater resistance to prolonged cryopreservation can guide our selection of antibiotics used to salvage contaminated cord blood units, ultimately maximizing benefits for our clients.
Source: Transfusion 2024
MSCs can repair diabetic foot ulcers
MSCs can repair diabetic foot ulcers
Diabetic foot is one of the most severe complications of diabetes and is the leading cause of non-traumatic surgical amputations. Currently, conventional treatments can only relieve symptoms or delay the progression of the disease, but they cannot repair damaged blood vessels and nerves. However, studies have shown that mesenchymal stem cell (MSCs) therapy can promote angiogenesis, participate in immune regulation, reduce inflammation, and even repair diabetic foot ulcers. Both human umbilical cord and placenta contain a rich source of MSCs. Since both are usually discarded during childbirth, the collection process is non-invasive and poses few ethical problems. It shows the enormous potential of MSCs derived from cord blood and placenta in the field of regenerative medicine.
資料來源 : Function and mechanism of mesenchymal stem cells in the healing of diabetic foot wounds
Understanding QA results
Understanding QA results
We check the quality of our cryopreserved cord blood and tissue samples twice a year to determine the quality of stem cells inside the cord blood. Since a stem cell looks like any other mono-nuclear cells (MNC), one cannot identify the stem cells simply by looking under a microscope. Here are some ways to check:
Using a biochemical stain, it is possible to enumerate the cells that are positive for CD34, a protein marker found on the surface of hematopoietic stem cells. However, CD34+ counts are very basic and it is only a simple measure of active stem cells within the stored cord blood. In fact, only 1-2% of the MNCs that are CD34+, but clinical engraftment need almost all the stored cord blood unit. In summary, this means the CD34+ result alone is not representative of the functionality of the cord blood unit used in future clinical therapy.
This is an important and most commonly reported type of viable cell count relative to the potency of a cord blood collection unit for storage after processing. TNC is highly reproducible among labs. It is therefore used accurately throughout the blood banking community and the TNC report is what a Medical Centre will observe and check prior to any Stem Cell Therapies.
This is currently the best measure to indicate whether the long-term cryopreserved stem cells are "viable". In a CFU assay, a small portion of sample is analyzed under controlled conditions within 10-14 days to see whether the observed stem cells differentiate and proliferate to form colonies, which are then counted. It is a time-consuming test procedure, but this is the type of test that we are committed to do regularly at CRYOLIFE to ensure your precious cryopreserved Cord Blood samples are well-taken care of and are still alive and viable for future stem cell therapeutic use.
Reference: https://parentsguidecordblood.org/en/faqs/what-are-tnc-mnc-cd34-and-cfu-and-why-should-i-care
