Abstract

Cord Blood Stem Cells: Current Uses and Future Applications in Regenerative Medicine

Mathias Freund, Professor/Director, Seracell Pharma

The harvest and storage of cord blood was originally developed for allogeneic hematopoietic transplantation. Due to its capability for immunologic adaptation, cord blood is increasingly used as allogeneic stem cell source in countries with genetically heterogeneous populations which have a poor availability of unrelated stem cell donors. In some indications autologous transplantation is used. There are several approaches to overcome the disadvantage of low stem cell numbers by performing expansion cultures. Due to regulatory T-cells and mesenchymal stem cells cord blood has also immune modulating effects which can be beneficial for inflammatory processes and tissue damage. These effects have been demonstratet in a number of animal models and experimental studies. Translational clinical studies are currently on their way to investigate the effect of cord blood in neurorestauration and neuroregeneration in several conditions associated with brain damage. The absence of stem cell senescence in cord blood stem cells together with their marked regenerative capacity forms the basis for future applications in organ replacement and regenerative medicine. With the IPS technique a first step has been realized. However, to avoid genotoxicity, new stem cell expansion and differentiation protocols have to be developed as a prerequisite for clinical application.