CEBU, Philippines - When we hear of stem cells, the first thing that comes to mind is cloning. That was exactly my thought when I was told that I was to be sent to Manila to cover the opening of the first stem cell bank in the country. But when stakeholders of this pioneering venture explained the importance of stem cells for future eventualities, I realized that there is something more to stem cell than creating a sheep called Dolly.
Stem cells are what doctors and biologists would refer to as undifferentiated cells, which means cells that still needs to decide what they want to be, whether a bone, a liver, a kidney, or blood. More like a child whose role in society is not yet determined.
Because of this, doctors, scientists, and researchers believe that it is useful in many possible ways. One of which, of course, is cloning. But what many of us may not be aware of is that stem cells have the potential of helping cure various diseases, whether chronic (like diabetes mellitus or cancer) or acute.
Some scientists even go the extra mile praising the potential of stem cells to be used in creating body parts that could help many patients like perhaps culturing a kidney for patients whose kidneys are no longer viable, or an arm for an amputated baseball player. But that’s still way off in the future.
CordLife, however, is far from that as it only harvests, processes, and stores stem cells from the umbilical cord of a newborn baby. Usually, this is thrown away after it has been cut by the nurse. Now, what used to be refuse has become a valuable resource that could possibly help cure countless diseases.
Why cord blood is important
In her presentation, Dr. Cherie Daly, head for Group Medical Affairs, revealed that stem cells are the building blocks of the blood and immune system, being able to reproduce into other cell types like bone, heart, muscle, and nerve. Because of this, stem cell therapies are now being used to treat hematologic disease, focusing on bone marrow restoration.
She said that to date, there had been 140,000 cord blood transplants for more than 80 diseases, adding that cord blood is the preferred source of stem cells in childhood cancers.
In 2004, she said that 3-year old Ryan Foo, who suffered from acute lymphoblastic leukemia, was helped by her younger sister’s cord blood stored in CordLife. 18-months after the transplant, Ryan started school again.
Daly said that in treating cancer, stem cell therapy is important after chemotherapy as this will help restore the normal cells destroyed in the process.
She revealed that aside from cord blood, other sources of stem cells are the bone marrow and peripheral blood. However, the safest and non-intrusive source, as well as the most viable with the most number of stem cells that can be extracted, is cord blood. This is because cord blood would only be using the umbilical cord cut from the baby. She clarified that this would not interfere or obstruct the birthing process, posing no risk for both child and mother.
She added that the stem cell collected can be used by the baby, her/his siblings, parents, and close relatives. This is because stem cells from related donors have more than double chance of survival as compared to those from an unrelated donor.
She said that transplantation is also safe, taking only twenty minutes of transfusion through an intravenous line.
CordLife’s facility
Steven Fang, group chief executive officer of CordLife said that back in 2005 their company had already been offering the service to Filipinos using their facilities in Singapore. But because of the growing demand, they decided to “forge stronger presence” in the country.
“Our investment here today is the accumulation of our global and technical experience and scientific understanding, which we want to bring to the people of the Philippines,” he said.
CordLife started in 2001 and to date has facilities in Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, China, Netherlands, India, and now in the Philippines.
“Given the highly advanced process of isolating and cryogenically preserving cord blood stem cells, CordLife Philippines’ facility is the accumulation of our current state-of-the-art technologies and knowledge across the entire group,” Fang said.
He revealed that the company maintains a research and development facility in Australia in partnership with Deakin University and Monash Immunology and Stem Cell Laboratory, as well as clinical partnerships with known institutions in the U.S.
In the country, their facility is able to recover up to 96 percent stem cells from cord blood and the cryogenic farm can store at most 200,000 cord blood units. Storage can last for almost a lifetime as the specimen will be stored in -196 degrees Celsius. “In this state there is no aging of the cells,” he said.
Fang further added that so far the oldest stored stem cell is 27 years and the oldest used is 15 years old.
Out-of-town clients
CordLife’s country manager, Suzanne Salindong, said that for out-of-town clients, CordLife has set-up a procedure that will ensure that the collecting and transporting of the specimen would be much easier.
She said that for clients from Cebu, all they have to do is to inform CordLife when the mother is to deliver the baby and they will be sending technicians to collect the specimen on the day of the delivery itself, transporting it back to its facility in Quezon City within 24-hours from collection.
Indeed, as man’s understanding of his body increases, solutions to centuries old problems become more accessible. We just have to be cautious that we don’t reach the point of playing God.
For more information of cord blood banking, visit CordLife’s website at www.cordlife.com.