Umbilical cord blood cells and brain stroke injury
Degeneration of brain tissue following stroke leads to functional impairment with limited brain self-repair. New evidence suggests that intravenous delivery of the CD34+ subpopulation of human
Umbilical cord blood cells can enhance angiogenesis, neurogenesis, and morphological and functional recovery.
Behavioral recovery from stroke and injury following delivery of human umbilical cord blood cells has been observed, but in the absence of significant numbers of grafted cells entering the brain the new neurons have migrated from the forebrain SVZ because of their expression of the migratory markers polysialylated neuronal cell adhesion molecule (PSA-NCAM) and doublecortin. While these are both markers of migrating neuroblasts, their expression does not provide information about the extent of their migration. It would be interesting to know what effect the stimulation provided by circulating CD34+ umbilical cord blood cells would have on neurogenesis in the forebrain SVZ and dentate gyrus regions of naive and stroke-lesioned animals. Such information would be useful for discriminating between the influence of CD34+ cells and that of neovascularization on the overall neurogenic capacity of the dentate gyrus and forebrain SVZ. It may also provide insight into the possibility of recruiting neural stem cells from these regions for brain repair. This one mechanism accounting for the functional recovery resulting from cord blood cell delivery works through the enhancement of angiogenesis around the site of degeneration. This finding provides a note of optimism for developing therapeutic strategies for stroke.
Details on Brain stroke injury: http://www.stemcellgf.org/Stroke.aspx
Details on other diseases – Please visit http://stemcellgf.org/Diseases.aspx
Interested in cord blood banking – Please visit http://stemcellgf.org/provider-cord-blood-banking.aspx
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