The researchers have developed a miracle stem cell treatment which cures potentially lethal blood disease in babies whilst they are still in the womb. In the study trail the bone marrow cells were taken from a pregnant woman by researchers and then injected those into the growing foetus.
Those cells were accepted by the developing immune system of the foetus without needing any drugs. For the first time, researchers have been capable of transplanting stem cells of mother into her progeny prior birth. The trail was carried out on animals. Since long stem cell transplant into foetus have been a Holy Grail for doctors.
The technique involves taking healthy cells from bone marrow of a mother and injecting them to unborn baby by using ultrasound-guided injections. If doing well, the implanted cells refill supply of blood-forming cells to the baby. According to experts many hereditary disorders can be diagnosed in first twelve weeks of pregnancy.
The growing babies are ideal aspirant for transplants as the threat of refusal is low and because they are less prone to require long-standing drugs to repress their immune systems. But, most of earlier efforts to transplant blood cells into foetus have unsuccessful. The immune reaction of mother prevents foetus from accepting giver’s blood stem cells.
It showed that up to ten percent of blood cells of the foetus came from the mother. The foetus accepted the transplanted stem cells which are from taken from the mother. Only if the transplanted stem cells are harmonized to the mother, it does not appear to matter if they are matched to the fetus, explained co-author Dr Amar Nijagal.
Transplanting stem cells reaped from the mother makes sense as the mother and her developing foetus are pre-wired to bear each other. The method could one day be used to cure a range of genetic disorders which affect thousands, including sickle cell anaemia and the immune system disorder that leaves babies susceptible to usually harmless infections.
This study is in fact thrilling as it proffers them a clear-cut and graceful solution that makes foetal stem cell transplantation an accessible ambition. They know, for the first time they have a feasible policy for treating congenital stem cell disorders before birth, explained lead author Dr Tippi MacKenzie from the University of California, San Francisco.