|
Anemic Boy Recovering Well From Stem-cell Blood Transplant
Yonhap English News
10 November 2005
SEOUL, Nov. 10 (Yonhap) -- A group of South Korean doctors have set a new record by transplanting stem cells into a 4-year-old boy using blood taken from his own umbilical cord to treat his anemia, a local medical company said Thursday.
"The surgery was successful and the patient is currently recuperating," a company spokesman said. Doctors have yet to ascertain if the stem cells will cure the disease.
The hematopoietic stem cell was inserted back into the child's body some three years after his blood was extracted and preserved by Medipost Co. following his delivery at the request of his mother. The boy was diagnosed with aplastic anemia when he visited the hospital with cold symptoms in August.
Umbilical cord blood is a rich source of stem cells that can be used for treating life-threatening diseases that may occur later in life.
The operation was performed in conjunction with Ulsan University Hospital in the southeastern industrial city of Ulsan, about 414 kilometers southeast of Seoul.
It is the first time that a stem-cell transplant has been successfully undertaken using the patient's own umbilical cord blood.
Since the introduction of cord blood banks in South Korea in 1997, there have been over 200 transplants, all using other people's cord blood.
That's is mainly because people who deposit cord blood are still too young to suffer from many serious diseases, according to industry sources.
Amid growing public interest in stem cells, an increasing number of South Korean mothers are saving their babies' cord blood after delivery.
|
