Canada: Connective Tissue Stem Cells To Treat Cartilage and Bone
Related News: Bone and Cartilage, Cord Blood Stem CellsStem cells in the umbilical cord's connective tissue, called mesenchymal progenitor cells, are those that go on to become bone, cartilage, muscle and other connective-tissue cells.
The stem cells are found in the connective tissue surrounding blood vessels in the umbilical cord and can be removed and grown in a few weeks to provide an abundant number of cells, said John Davies, a professor of biomaterials at the University of Toronto and head of the research team.
Blood from the umbilical cord is a source of blood-forming stem cells, and an increasing number of parents are having them frozen and stored as insurance against future diseases in their child or other family members.
“This provides another source of cells which could be stored from the umbilical cord, which is otherwise just thrown away,” Dr. Davies said in an interview Tuesday.
The University of Toronto team used umbilical cords only from full-term newborns, which were donated by parents for research.
Dr. Davies said these stem cells could also be used in transplanting bone marrow — the body's factory for stem cells that develop into the components of all the different tissues of the body, from the brain and organs to muscles and bone.
Posted on February 17, 2005 01:51 PM