Infants With Rare Genetic Disease Saved By Cord Blood Stem Cells

[benburch]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/05/050526134903.htm

Infants With Rare Genetic Disease Saved By Cord Blood Stem Cells

Durham, N.C. -- Children with a fatal genetic disorder called Krabbe disease can be saved and their brain development preserved if they receive stem cells from umbilical cord blood before symptoms of the disease develop, according to a study published in the May 19, 2005, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Without an immediate transplant of stem cells, Krabbe infants rapidly begin to lose all cognitive and motor functions and die by the age of two, said the researchers. They are from Duke University Medical Center's Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Program and The Clinical Center for the Study of Development & Learning at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH).

The study is the first to demonstrate a life-saving treatment for newborns with Krabbe Disease, in which children are missing an enzyme critical to forming the myelin sheath that protects developing brain cells from damage. Moreover, the findings add to the growing body of evidence showing that cord blood can save children with other fatal "lysosomal storage diseases," each of which stems from a specific enzyme deficiency.

These disorders include more than 45 rare diseases, such as Krabbe disease, Hurler syndrome, Adrenoleukodystrophy, Metachromatic Leukodystrophy, Tay-Sachs disease, Sandhoff disease and a host of others.

<SNIP>
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The President wants these children to die and thereby he is carrying on the Eugenics agenda of his immediate ancestors.

[bleedingheart]

1. Donating cord blood had just started when my daughter was born

and I wanted to do it but there were so many forms to do so that I couldn't get the process done in time...I hope that bit of bureacracy has been fixed.

[Bridget Burke]

2. Cord Blood Stem Cells are not the same as Fetal Stem Cells.

This is good news & has nothing to do with the President's "culture of life."

[Igel]

3. Off hand, I'd guess that there's some federal funding

in this research.

NIH funds all sorts of things, in full or in part.