About cord tissue
Mesenchymal stem cells, MSCs
The difference between stem cells in cord tissue and cord blood
It’s important to note that umbilical cord blood and cord tissue are rich in two distinct types of stem cells. Both types of stem cells play key roles in regenerative medicine, and each works in its own way.
Why should you save cord tissue?
The umbilical cord contains two arteries and one vein supported by an insulating tissue called Wharton’s jelly, which is a rich source of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), that are fundamentally different from the stem cells found in cord blood. Mesenchymal stem cells collected from cord tissue are multi-potent, meaning they can regenerate and differentiate into many different types of cells including cartilage, bone, fat and muscle. These unique properties make them promising for cellular therapies.
Stem cell research
We are living in an exciting era of regenerative medicine. Stem cells are currently being studied in numerous clinical trials, for regenerative purposes. Many of these studies involve cells from the umbilical cord tissue. Cord tissue stem cells have been studied extensively for their ability to form a number of different tissue types. These cells have many special functions that fill a need in regenerative medicine. These stem cells are being used to rebuild cardiac tissue, repair neural or spinal cord injuries, heal connective tissues damaged in sports injuries, treat Multiple Sclerosis, Cerebral Palsy, ALS, reverse the effects of autism, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s and build new organs.
The use of stem cells for treatment of diseases
These cells have also shown to be able to influence the immune system by activation, suppression and modulation: immune activation for cancer treatment, immune suppression for treatment of graft-vs-host disease and transplant rejection, and immune modulation for treatment of autoimmune diseases. The potential therapeutic value they offer for treatment in a wide range of diseases is increasing all the time. The body’s ability to regenerate tissues through its own stem cells is limited and slows further with age. For instance, a heart attack will leave behind scar tissue that lacks muscle or blood vessels. Any part of the heart, which is essentially a big muscle, that cannot contract and limits the ability to pump blood could lead to further complications. Scientists are hopeful that cord tissue stem cells could one day prove effective in this type of treatment. A significant amount of research is underway to better understand how cord tissue stem cells could play a role in future therapies. We are ourselves conducting two clinical trials for treatment of patients with type 1-diabetes. While research is still in its early stages, the future possibilities are extremely promising.
Cellaviva’s advanced laboratory process
When it comes to the laboratory process of your baby’s umbilical cord tissue, we take numerous extra steps to grow and extract cord tissue stem cells prior to storage to best prepare them for potential use. Companies collecting MSCs use different methods of processing the tissue. Cellaviva’s process recovers all the mesenchymal stem cell from the cord tissue – to bring your family more cells. Our guarantee is that there will be viable cells, when they are needed. That is not possible with processes, where the umbilical cord is simply hacked up and frozen. Frozen tissue takes a very long time to grow and to isolate stem cells from. Our process of already grown, isolated stem cells from the umbilical cord on the other hand, assures you a product ready to be used when needed. Our cord tissue method is time consuming and immensely different from the one used by many other companies – and it matters.
Cellaviva is a part of the company NextCell Pharma, an innovative Biotech growing out of the need for Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products for Autoimmune Disease and Transplantation. The company develops treatments with umbilical cord stem cells. The first disease we evaluate our stem cell treatment for is type 1 diabetes. Read more about NextCell Pharma here: www.nextcellpharma.com.