Cord blood and stem cells.

About Cord Blood

What is cord blood?

Cord blood, also called “placental blood”, is blood that remains in the umbilical cord and placenta following the birth of a baby. During pregnancy, the umbilical cord functions as a lifeline between mother and child. After a baby’s delivery, the cord blood present in the umbilical cord could offer hope for the child or members of the family.

What are cord blood stem cells?

Cord blood is a rich source of haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), which are primarily responsible for replenishing blood and regenerating the immune system. They have the unique ability to differentiate into various cell types found in blood as depicted in the diagram below:

and immune cells

Red Blood

Carry oxygen to all cells in body

Why Bank Cord Blood

Top 5 reasons why you should consider cord blood banking

• 1 in 217 individuals may need a haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) transplant by the age of 70 according to a scientific paper published in 2008.
• It is once-in-a-lifetime chance to collect cord blood – a readily available source when needed in the future.
• 60% higher chance of locating a matching cord blood unit in the family versus bone marrow.
• Research showed that patients have a lower chance of complications in transplants when they receive stem cells from a relative.
• Some of the most common cancers are treatable with a stem cell transplant. For instance, lymphoma and leukaemia are two of the top 10 common cancers for adults and among the top 5 most common childhood cancers in India.

• Cord Blood Processing

• Stem cell isolation is a critical step in cord blood banking. It affects the number of stem cells that can be harvested or recovered from the cord blood. Cell recovery rates are critical because a higher number of stem cells could enhance the success of the transplant or treatment.

• How Are Stem Cells Used

• Stem Cell Transplantation

• This is done to reconstitute a patient's blood and immune system, following treatments such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy, which destroys blood cells.

• The stem cells are infused directly into the patient's bloodstream, which migrate to the bone marrow. Inside the bone marrow environment, the stem cells begin differentiating into the three blood cell types - red blood, white blood and platelets. This initiates the regeneration of the patient's blood and immune system.

• The first  cord blood transplant was performed in 1988 in France, which successfully treated a 5-year old boy with Fanconi's Anaemia. To date there have been more than 30,000  cord blood stem cell transplants reported worldwide.

  Cellular Therapies

  Many newer applications are still undergoing development. In some cases, like spinal cord injury and heart attacks, the cells are directly injected into the damaged tissues. Some of the benefits experienced appear to be due to new blood vessel formation, which restores blood flow to damaged tissue.
  As these treatments develop, we expect to see cord blood stem cells used in different ways. In some cases, the stem cells will be treated in the laboratory to make new cell types before use. In other cases, they will be delivered directly into the damaged tissue.

  DISEASES TREATED WITH STEM CELLS

  Haematological Disorders

  Haematological Stem Cell Disorders
  • Aplastic Anaemia (Severe)
  • Fanconi Anaemia
  • Paroxysmal nocturnal haemoglobinuria (PNH)
  Acute Leukaemias
  • Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL)
  • Acute Myelogenous Leukaemia (AML)
  • Acute Biphenotypic Leukaemia
  • Acute undifferentiated Leukaemia
  • Acute Myelo-monocytic Leukaemia
  Chronic Leukaemia
  • Chronic Myelogenous Leukaemia
  • Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia
  • Juvenile chronic Myelogenous Leukaemia
  • Juvenile Myelomonocytic Leukaemia
  Myeloproliferative disorders
  • Acute myelofibrosis
  • Agnogenic myeloid metaplasia
  • Polycythaemia Vera
  Lymphoproliferative disorders
  • Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
  • Hodgkin’s disease
  • Prolymphocytic leukaemia
  • Chronic Granulomatous disease
  • Neutrophil actin deficiency
  • Reticular dysgenesis
  Myelodysplastic Syndromes
  • Refractory Anaemia
  • Refractory Anaemia with ring sideroblasts
  • Refractory Anaemia with excess blasts
  • Refractory anaemia with excess blasts in transformation
  • Chronic myelo-monocytic leukaemia
  • Beta Thalassaemia Major
  • HbE Beta Thalassaemia
  • Pure Red Cell Aplasia
  • Sickle Cell Disease
  Inherited Platelet abnormalities
  • Amegakaryocytosis - I
  • Congenital thrombocytopenia
  • Glanzmann thromboasthenia
  • Essential Thrombocythaemias
  Histiocytic disorders
  • Familial erythrophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis
  • Histiocytosis X
  • Haemophagocytosis

  Metabolic Disorders

  Liposomal Storage Disease
  • Mucopolysaccharidosis
  • Hurlers Syndrome
  • Hunters Syndrome
  • Scheie syndrome
  • Sanfillipo syndrome
  • Morquio syndrome
  • Macroteaux-Lamy syndrome
  • Sly syndrome
  • Beta Glucuronidase deficiency
  • Adrenoleukodystrophy
  • Mucolipidosis II
  • Krabbe disease
  • Gauchers disease
  • Niemann-Pick disease
  • Wolman disease
  • Metachromatic leukodystrophy

  Immunological Disorders

  Phagocytic disorders
  • Chediak-Higashi syndrome
  • Ataxia – telangiectasia
  • Kostmann syndrome
  • Leukocyte adhesion deficiency
  • DiGeorge syndrome
  • Bare Lymphocyte Syndrome
  • Omonn’s syndrome
  • Severe combined immune deficiency
  • SCID with adenosine deaminase deficiency
  • Absence of T & B cells SCID
  • Absence of Tcells, Normal B Cells SCID
  • Common variable immune deficiency
  • Wiscott Aldrich Syndrome
  • X-linked Lymphoproliferative disorder
  Plasma cell disorders
  • Multiple Myeloma
  • Plasma cell leukaemia
  • Waldenstorm’s macroglobulinemia
  Other Inherited disorders
  • Lesch-Nyhan syndrome
  • Cartilage-hair hypoplasia
  • Osteopetrosis

  Other malignancies

  Breast Cancer 
  • Metastatic Breast Cancer
  • Inflammatory Breast Cancer
  • Triple Negative Breast Cancer

  Rational of High-dose chemotherapy with stem cell transplant

  High-dose chemotherapy with stem cell transplant is a way of giving high doses of chemotherapy and replacingblood - forming cells destroyed by the cancer treatment. Stem cells (immature blood cells) are removed from the blood, bone marrow of the patient or a donor or umbilical cord blood are frozen and stored. After the chemotherapy is completed, the stored stem cells are thawed and given back to the patient through an infusion. These reinfused stem cells grow into (and restore) the body’s blood cells.
  • Ewings sarcoma 
  Neuroblastoma 
  • Childhood Central Nervous System Germ Cell Tumors
  • Childhood Extra-cranial Germ Cell Tumors
  Renal Cell Carcinoma
• Renal Cell Carcinoma
• Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma

• How Is Cord Blood Collected

  • Collection of your baby’s cord blood 

  • After the baby is born, the umbilical cord will be clamped and within minutes, the obstetrician or caregiver will drain the cord blood into a sterile double-wrapped single-use blood bag. This procedure is painless and risk-free to both you and your baby. It takes about 3 minutes and does not alter the birthing process in any way. It can be done with either a vaginal or caesarean delivery.

    The Future of Stem Cells

    Future application of cord blood stem cells

    The list of stem cell treatable diseases continues to grow at a rapid pace. With the potential to become different cell types, scientists are exploring the possibility of using cord blood stem cells to treat some of the most common life-threatening diseases such as heart diseases and stroke. Thus, saving your baby’s cord blood now can ensure your child's access to his/her own stem cells for such cellular therapy in the future.

White Blood

Fight Injection

Platelets

Assist blood clotting in case of injury

Learn to Say No to an Antibiotics Prescription (and When You Should Say Yes)

Despite all our knowledge that antibiotics don’t kill viruses and the undeniable risk of overuse to public and personal health, doctors routinely prescribe antibiotics when the drugs aren’t necessary, found a recent Consumer Reports survey of 1,000 adults. This can lead to the growth of “superbugs”—bacteria that can’t be controlled even with multiple drugs—and serious consequences.

MRSA and other resistant bacteria infect at least two million people in the United States annually, killing at least 23,000. Several major medical organizations, including the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American Academy of Pediatrics, have recently tried to correct antibiotic misuse by explaining when the drugs are and aren’t needed.

1. Ear infections

When to say no: Most ear infections improve without drugs, especially in children two and older. Wait two to three days to see if symptoms subside.

When to say yes: Drugs may be needed right away for babies six months and younger with ear pain, children from six months to two years with moderate to severe ear pain, and children two and older with severe symptoms.

2. Eczema

When to say no: Antibiotics don’t relieve most causes of itchy, red skin. Instead, moisturize or ask your doctor to recommend a medicated cream or ointment.

When to say yes: If there are signs of a bacterial infection, such as bumps or sores full of pus, honey-colored crusting, very red or warm skin, and fever.

3. Eye infections

When to say no: Doctors often prescribe prophylactic antibiotic eyedrops after treating eye diseases, such as macular degeneration, with injections. But antibiotic drops are rarely needed after such procedures and can irritate your eyes.

When to say yes: If you develop a bacterial eye infection, marked by redness, swelling, tearing, pus, and impaired vision.

4. Respiratory infections

When to say no: Colds, flu, and most coughs and cases of bronchitis are caused by viruses. Strep throat is bacterial but accounts for only about one third of cases in children. If you suspect strep, get tested to find out for sure.

When to say yes: If a cough lasts longer than 14 days or a strep test comes back positive.

5. Sinus infections

When to say no: Sinusitis is usually viral. Bacterial sinus infections often clear up in a week or so even if they are not treated.

When to say yes: If symptoms are severe, don’t improve after ten days, or get better but then worsen.

6. Urinary tract infections

When to say no: For older patients, particularly those who live in long-term-care facilities, doctors often prescribe antibiotics when a routine test finds bacteria in urine. But if patients don’t have symptoms, the drugs won’t help.

When to say yes: You have symptoms: burning during urination and a strong urge to “go” often.

Cereal Bowl for Weight Loss

My biggest rule with breakfast: stop eating carb-only meals (jumbo bagels, I’m talking to you). They might give me a quick rush, but they’re missing the protein I need for energy in the morning. I also make sure to fit in calcium. (Experts recommend we get at 1,000 mg of calcium in our diet every day).

Cereal is a quick way to get key breakfast nutrients in one simple bowl: fiber from grains and fruit and calcium and some protein from milk. But: It’s easy to over-pour, which can triple your calorie intake and set you up for a mid-morning blood-sugar crash. If you’re a cereal lover, use this chart (and measuring cups!) to see what a true healthy cereal portion looks like. If it’s a lot smaller than you’re used to, don’t worry. The fiber from the fruit is more satisfying than it looks.

For an even more filling breakfast, add a tablespoon of your favorite chopped nuts, such as walnuts or almonds.

Your Birth Month Could Predict About Your Future Health

Your birthday dictates your zodiac sign, but new research suggests that it may also affect various aspects of health later in life. Keep in mind: The impact of birth season is far from definitive; heredity and environment play a far bigger role.

Fall Birthdays

1. Better physical fitness: A study in the International Journal of Sports Medicine found that school-age boys born in November scored an average of ten percentile points higher on tests of cardiorespiratory fitness, handgrip strength, and lower-body power compared with those born in April. Fall babies’ mothers are pregnant in the summer, when vitamin D levels surge. Vitamin D affects fetal physical development.

2. Food allergies: People with autumn birthdays were 30 to 90 percent more likely to develop food allergies than those born in other seasons, according to Johns Hopkins University research. Fall babies are exposed to less skin-protecting vitamin D early in life, which could make them more likely to develop a sensitivity to food allergens through the skin.

Winter Birthdays

3. Left-handedness: Men born during this season are more likely to be lefties than those born during other times of the year, according to new Austrian and German research. High levels of testosterone in utero can make left-handedness more likely—and longer periods of daylight during the summer can trigger a testosterone surge at a crucial time during fetal development when handedness might be influenced.

4. Premature birth: Babies conceived in May (and typically born in February) are 10 percent more likely to arrive prematurely than those conceived during other seasons, a 2013 study found. Expectant mothers’ exposure to flu in the last trimester may be why. Pregnant women should get vaccinated for flu.

Spring Birthdays

5. Melanoma: Spring-born people have a 21 percent greater chance of developing melanoma than those born in the fall, reported a 2014 study in the International Journal of Epidemiology. Exposure to UV light during the first few months of life may affect the body’s susceptibility to developing melanoma as an adult. That said, lifelong habits— using sunscreen year-round, not tanning, wearing hats and sunglasses—go a long way toward protecting you against all forms of skin cancer.

6. Earlier menopause: In an Italian study of nearly 3,000 postmenopausal women, those born in spring were more likely to reach menopause just before age 49; those born in the fall were likelier to enter menopause about 15 months later. Fall women might be born with a greater number of eggs.

Summer Birthdays

7. Nearsightedness: Summer babies are more prone to need glasses for distance, found a study in the journal Ophthalmology. This may be because of the amount of light babies are exposed to right before and after they’re born. Research in animals has shown this can affect normal eye development.

8. Mood swings: People born during summer months are more likely to have “cyclothermic temperament,” or rapid fluctuation between sad and happy moods. Light and temperature exposure may affect brain chemicals that regulate mental health.

Treating a Sprained Ankle

A sprain occurs when one or more of the ligaments has been stretched, twisted, or torn. It is the most common ankle injury. In a minor sprain, some of the fibers within the ligament are stretched. In more serious sprains, the ligament may be torn. Minor sprains can be treated at home. Serious sprains need medical attention and may even require surgery. The pain can be excruciating. If in doubt, take the injured person to the hospital for an X-ray.

Use RICE to remember treatment steps.

R = Rest. I = Ice. C = Compression. E = Elevation.

What to Look For

• With a severe injury, the patient may not be able to bear weight on the leg.
• Pain in and around the joint. The patient may feel faint with the pain.
• Swelling, and later bruising, around the joint

First Aid for a Sprained Ankle

1. Rest the leg. The patient should stop the activity that caused the injury. Help her to sit down and rest the ankle. Support it in a raised position.

2. Cool with ice. Cool the ankle to reduce pain and swelling. Ideally wrap a bag of ice or frozen peas in a cloth and place it on the ankle. Do not put ice straight onto the skin, as it will cause a cold burn. Leave the ice in place for about 20 minutes.

3. Apply pressure. Leave the compress in place if it is small or wrap a layer of soft padding, such as a roll of cotton wool, around the ankle. Apply pressure with a compression support or compression bandage to help limit swelling. This should extend from the toes to the knee.

4. Elevate the ankle. Raise and support the ankle so that it is higher than the hip to prevent swelling. Advise the patient to rest the ankle. If you suspect serious injury, take the patient to the hospital.

5. Check circulation. Make sure that the bandage is not too tight. Press on a toenail until it turns white, then let go. The color should return quickly. If it does not return, the bandage is too tight; remove it and reapply. Recheck every 10 minutes.

6. Reapply the cold compress over the bandage every two to three hours. Remove the bandage at night and do not sleep with an ice pack on the injury.

When Everyday Noises Ruin Your Life

Lunch at the Marriott hotel in Mesa, Arizona, was a southwestern buffet of overcooked chicken and soggy enchiladas. I’d recently met a friendly man with a shaved head and a pale oblong face named Paul Tabachneck, so we sat down together at a table to eat. Tabachneck ate carefully, eyes trained on his plate or a spot on the beige walls. But his conversation was lively—he talked about busking as a guitarist in the New York subway while trying to achieve a dream of being a professional musician. After about ten minutes, I scraped my knife against my plate while cutting my chicken. Tabachneck whipped his head around to look at me, his eyes suddenly cold.

“Did you have to do that?” he snapped. “And did you know that your jaw pops when you eat?”

We’re all annoyed by annoying sounds: fingernails on chalkboards, car alarms, Fran Drescher’s nasal tones. But for some people, particular sounds send them into an unbearable frenzy. There’s the Atlanta journalist who wanted to reach across the table to strangle his loudly chewing father; the Arizona computer scientist who hated the sound of knives so much that his girlfriend developed a phobia too; the Oregon housewife who moved her family members out of her home so she wouldn’t have to listen to them. Psychologists call them misophones—people with an acute reaction to specific, usually low-volume sounds. But because the condition is poorly understood, they struggle to convince others that their problem isn’t a form of neuroticism. In this hotel, where one of the first scientific conferences on misophonia was being held, the afflicted finally met others of their kind and shared their tales of aural agony. You just had to be very, very careful with your cutlery.

When Tabachneck was 14, he and his father were watching a movie at home in Pittsburgh. His dad started pushing his ice cream into a puddle, clinking his spoon against the bowl.

Up

to that point, Tabachneck’s relationship with sound was normal. He loved music and enjoyed hearing people laugh; he found sirens somewhat grating. But this clinking was different—it provoked a combination of anxiety and nearly physical agitation. It was the beginning of a lifetime of noise-related misery.

Tabachneck went to college to study computer science but dropped out because the clicking in the computer labs made him so tense. He took a job in customer service and found he had a knack for it. But some colleagues made him crazy. One man spat chewing tobacco, another talked with his mouth full, and a third brought in an old keyboard because he liked the sound of the keys.

Tabachneck’s personal relationships also suffered. He loved one girlfriend enough to consider marrying her but had to eat in a separate room to avoid hearing her chew. A later romance ended because the woman smacked her gum. He’s now dating someone who occasionally cracks her joints. “Most people can’t be in a relationship with a misophone,” he says, “because they don’t want to feel guilty for eating cereal in a porcelain bowl.”

After hearing problems were ruled out—Tabachneck’s only abnormality was perfect pitch—his issues were thought to be psychological. Over the years, doctors gave him different diagnoses and medications. Nothing made sense until an audiologist told Tabachneck in 2010 that he seemed as if he had a textbook case of an emerging disorder called misophonia.

In

1997, Oregon audiologist Marsha Johnson met a girl who couldn’t bear the noise her father made when he chewed his nails. Other cases trickled in, and she talked to fellow audiologists who had also observed the condition. Johnson has become an advocate for the disorder, creating an online forum and helping to organize the Arizona conference.

She and other experts view misophonia as an “old brain” problem, probably located in the part of the cortex that processes emotion. “When people hear these sounds, they react with intense emotion,” she says. “It isn’t a higher cognitive function where you’re going, ‘I don’t like white chocolate lattes.’ This is like a yellow-jacket sting—you slap, jump, run, and scream.”

I sucked on a peppermint. Tabachneck yelled at me, “What are you doing? Didn’t we talk about this?”

It’s impossible to know how many sufferers there are. Of the 4,000 misophones who post on the forum, half a dozen were at the Marriott. Among them, Tabachneck was a sort of star. His song “Misophone” had circulated, and Scott, an engineer, approached him at a break. They talked triggers.

“Burping has always bothered me,” Tabachneck told him. “And my girlfriend does this thing where she cracks her neck, and you snap back like that.” He imitated the maneuver.

“There’s a woman here who does that,” said Scott. “There’s also where you hear something that sounds like somebody cracking knuckles, and all of a sudden, you’re hypervigilant.”

“You’re looking to find who cracked their knuckles,” said Tabachneck, nodding. “Always looking. It never ends.”

Misophonia is not included in the DSM-5, the so-called bible of psychiatric diagnoses—it’s too recently observed, for one thing. But whether misophonia is a mental disorder or not doesn’t really matter for people like Tabachneck, who experience life-altering discomfort daily. At the conference, he performed “Misophone.” A crowd gathered to talk to him afterward. As I took notes behind him, I absentmindedly sucked on a peppermint, the sound barely registering above the chitchat. Tabachneck wheeled around, his face shifting from warmth to disgust: “What are you doing? Didn’t we talk about this?” he yelled at me.

Johnson says misophones will try anything for relief: “You could say, ‘I’ll hit you on the head with a guitar, and it will cure you,’ and you’d have a hundred people lined up to pay you $5,000 to hit them on the head.” She’s testing a new approach—it uses sound- generating equipment to weaken an individual’s connection between certain sounds and the autonomous nervous system—paired with cognitive therapy.

Desperate misophones often try to drown out irritating sounds with an ocean of ambient noise. Johnson mentioned sufferers who work as Zumba instructors or in bowling alleys; others use iPods, fans, fountains, YouTube channels, and headsets that play white noise, lower-frequency pink noise, and the lowest-frequency brown noise.

Following the conference, Tabachneck conducted his own experiment: He went to see a film in a theater. At a previous outing, one couple was eating popcorn so loudly, it seemed like a deliberate provocation.

This time, taking advice from one of his new misophonic buddies, Tabachneck requested a headset for the hearing impaired and found a seat in the back of the theater. With the headset’s padding, the popcorn-chomping sounds were dampened, disappearing as the film filled his ears. He relaxed. “Toward the end,” he says, “I actually removed the headphones to hear the audience’s reaction to the last few scenes. And it was totally worth it.”

Essential Steps of CPR

If a person is not breathing, his heartbeat will stop. Do CPR (chest compressions and rescue breaths) to help circulation and get oxygen into the body. (Early use of an AED, if one is available, can restart a heart with an abnormal rhythm.

First, open a person’s airway to check if they are breathing (don’t begin CPR if a patient is breathing normally). Then, get help. If you are not alone, send someone to call for help as soon as you have checked breathing. Ask the person to come back and confirm that the call has been made.

Then follow these steps:

1. Position your hand (below). Make sure the patient is lying on his back on a firm surface. Kneel beside him and place the heel of your hand on the center of the chest.

2. Interlock fingers (below). Keeping your arms straight, cover the first hand with the heel of your other hand and interlock the fingers of both hands together. Keep your fingers raised so they do not touch the patient’s chest or rib cage.

3. Give chest compressions (below). Lean forward so that your shoulders are directly over the patient’s chest and press down on the chest about two inches. Release the pressure, but not your hands, and let the chest come back up.

Repeat to give 30 compressions at a rate of 100 compressions per minute. Not sure what that really means? Push to beat of the Bee Gees song “Stayin’ Alive” (watch the video below to see this in action).

Note: The American Heart Association recommends Hands-Only CPR (CPR without rescue breaths, which are detailed below) for people suffering out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. According to the AHA, only about 39 percent of people who experience an out of hospital cardiac arrest get immediate help before professional help arrives; doing Hands-Only CPR may be more comfortable than doing rescue breaths for some bystanders and make it more likely that they take action.

The AHA still recommends CPR with compressions and breaths for infants and children and victims of drowning, drug overdose, or people who collapse due to breathing problems

4. Open the airway (below). Move to the patient’s head. Tilt his head and lift his chin to open the airway again. Let his mouth fall open slightly.

5. Give rescue breaths (below). Pinch the nostrils closed with the hand that was on the forehead and support the patient’s chin with your other hand. Take a normal breath, put your mouth over the patient’s, and blow until you can see his chest rise.

6. Watch chest fall. Remove your mouth from the patient’s and look along the chest, watching the chest fall. Repeat steps five and six once.

7. Repeat chest compressions and rescue breaths. Place your hands on the chest again and repeat the cycle of 30 chest compressions, followed by two rescue breaths. Continue the cycle.