Babies with congenital heart defects could benefit from cord stem cell technology to create healthy new cardiac valves, according to a team of German researchers led by Dr Ralf Sodian, from the University Hospital of Munich. The researchers say they have grown cells from umbilical cord blood which have been used create laboratory grown heart valves. These cord stem cells have ability to save infants currently facing a bleak prognosis owing to the near impossibility of repairing malfunctioning heart valves in newborns.
Currently, surgeons created replacement heart valves from human or animal donors or artificial materials. However these materials cannot grow or change shape as a child develops thus two or more operation is required to replace outgrown valves. The new approach involves growing replacement valves from stem cell taken from a child’s own umbilical cord blood. These stem cells are immature cells that can grow into different tissue types.
