Cerebral Palsy and Stem Cell Therapy
* The Institute of Cellular Medicine (ICM) only uses stem cells from adults, umbilical cord blood and placentas NOT fetal or embryonic stem cells, as Legal and ethical issues may arise when fetal or embryonic stem cells are involved.
Cord blood stem cell therapy is in the early stages. Umbilical cord stem cells have been used world-wide since 1988. They have typically been used to restore the immune system of patients undergoing myeloablative chemotherapy.
In the brain, neuronal progenitor cells (present in umbilical cord blood) have been shown to differentiate into new tissue circuitry that is needed for a variety of specialized neural functions. Effective neural function, of any type, depends to a great extent on the establishment of precise physical pathways and connections that allow electrical communication between individual neurons and between entire classes of neurons; stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood have been shown to repair these types of connections.
Momentum is gathering for the introduction of stem cell therapy in the treatment of cerebral palsy, not only for children, but for adults as well. In fact, on December 20th of 2005, President George W. Bush signed a bill establishing a national umbilical cord blood program in which federal funding is provided for the collection and storage of cord blood for blood cell transplants. Now parents in the U.S. have increased hope for a higher quality of lives for their children. Additionally, real hope for adults who are suffering with cerebral palsy is now also found in the extensive research that is being conducted by a long list of scientists on adult brain plasticity and "restorative neurobiology."
