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Biotech / Medical : ASTM-AASTROM BIOSCIENCES: STEM CELL RESEARCH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: waldo who wrote (324)	12/12/1998 8:30:00 PM
From: waldo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1084

Friday December 11 6:28 PM ET Procedure boosts cord cells for transplant NEW YORK, Dec 11 (Reuters Health) -- A new method of growing cells collected from umbilical cord blood may increase the success rates of transplant operations using the cells, according to researchers at Duke University in North Carolina. The immune cell-rich cord blood is used in place of bone marrow for those in need of a transplant. In the two-step transplant procedure, cells are collected from cord blood. Some are transplanted, while others are placed in a cell production system developed by Aastrom Biosciences of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and exposed to growth factors and nutrients. After 12 days, the cells expand 5-fold overall, reported Dr. Joanne Kurtzberg at the recent American Society of Hematology meeting in Miami Beach, Florida. The cells are then infused into the transplant patient in a ''booster'' that will hopefully improve engraftment and reduce the infection rate. The Duke team performed successful booster transplants in 19 of 28 patients, who ranged in age from less than 1 year to 36 years. Nine patients did not have sufficient cells in the original transplant material to undergo the expansion procedure. So far, patients receiving expanded cells had a survival rate of 85% at 100 days after the procedure, Kurtzberg told Reuters Health. Data from similar patients who received traditional cord blood transplants at Duke show a 58% survival rate at 100 days, she said. Survival was highest in patients who received the greatest amount of booster blood. ''We know that transplants can be done with less cord blood than bone marrow, but we think that patients have a better chance of engrafting, and engrafting more quickly, when the amount of transplant material is greater,'' she said. ''Knowing that we can expand the unit could lead to cord blood transplant being more available to more people.'' search.news.yahoo.com W