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BLOOD taken from umbilical cords could be an excellent source of stem cells
to treat stroke, says a Florida-based team.

Stem cells can be coaxed into becoming any other type of cell in the body,
holding out the possibility of growing replacement tissue or even organs. Stem
cells are found in embryos, umbilical cords and some adult tissue, such as bone
marrow. But pro-life campaigners argue that an embryo is a human life, and
destroying it is murder. Using stem cells from other sources would get round
such objections.

Paul Sandberg and his team at the University of South Florida used various
growth factors to coax stem cells taken from human umbilical cord blood into
becoming immature nerve cells. When they injected these cells intravenously into
rats that had suffered strokes, the results were spectacular. Within two weeks,
the treated rats were performing almost as well on neurological tests as healthy
rats.

Sandberg had previously used stem cells from bone marrow to treat stroke in
animals. In these experiments, the immature nerve cells were injected directly
into the brain. The umbilical cells performed 鈥渁t least as well as the bone
marrow cells鈥�, he says. But cells from umbilical cords are easier to collect and
are unlikely to provoke an immune response in the patient.