By Amy Price PhD
I recently shared some posts on umbilical cord banking information. Dr Fran Verter of the Parent’s Guide to Cord Blood Foundation shared with us how this works. It seems storage and transport can introduce complications so I wondered what would happen if we eliminated those high tech freezers and freeze dried the stem cells instead. Could they be reconstituted and retain the integrity needed to reproduce?
I located a journal article on Plos One along with others who are using these techniques. Apparently the first generation reproduced DNA accurately which is no surprise as this is a forensics basics but the other portions of the cell needed for healthy growth didn't survive. They are now getting success rates in the 90% range for cells they have reconstituted and then reproduced. The University of Rochester, Image above, is showing some interesting research on using freeze dried cells for bone repair and tissue engineering
This solves a lot of storage problems, should reduce costs and cells could last for years. The ones used in the studies were three years old and over. It is anyone's guess how long this could take to become a viable option for human adult stemcell storage but what a great concept...Stemcells To Go
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