Clinical trial for diabetes using autologous cord blood

Gainsville, Florida -

Autologous cord blood has received some recent media for its use in treatment of cerebral palsy.  Other groups have reported the use of allogeneic cord blood to have positive effects for conditions other than hematopoietic disorders, even in absence of immune suppression.   Accordingly there seems to be a trend towards more and more researchers and clinicians to start expanding the use of cord blood for many indications. 

However, we have to be realistic.  One back of cord blood has approximately one million CD34 stem cells.  This is not a lot of stem cells.  What is the possibility of using this bag of one million stem cells to actually cure a disease like diabetes?  In a recent paper (Haller et al. Autologous umbilical cord blood infusion for type 1 diabetes. Exp Hematol 2008 Mar 19) , a group from Florida actually tested this. 

It has previously been reported that cord blood derived cells may become insulin producing cells (Sun et al. Induction of human umbilical cord blood-derived stem cells with embryonic stem cell phenotypes into insulin producing islet-like structure. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2007 Mar 23;354(4):919-23).  Additionally it has been reported that cord blood contains immune suppressive elements.  Therefore the investigators in Florida decided to see what happens if young, recent onset, diabetics were treated with autologous cord blood.

In this interim report it was reported that 15 type I diabetes were treated with autologous cord blood and no adverse effect were seen.  The investigators reported a loss of endogenous insulin production as well as rise in systemic T regulatory cell numbers.  These preliminary data may support the use of autologous cord blood for treatment of Type I Diabetes, and also may provide a stepping stone for other non-hematopoietic uses of cord blood.