Stem Cells and Cerebral Palsy

What is Cerebral Palsy?

Cerebral palsy is a term used to describe a certain neurological condition that affects movement. This condition is the most common form of childhood disability and can result from brain abnormalities or injuries in the womb but physically occurring during 2 years after birth. Affecting around 764,000 individuals in the United States, these conditions affect the brain and nervous system functions such as hearing, learning, seeing, thinking, learning, and movement.

Some of the common causes of Cerebral Palsy (CP) are head injuries, hypoxia (low oxygen levels), and maternal infections such as brain infection, rubella, brain bleeding, and severe jaundice. The different types of CP include: hypotonic, ataxic, spastic, dyskinetic, and mixed.

Can cerebral palsy be treated with stem cells?

The Mesenchymal stem cells derived from umbilical cord are considered to be universal donor cells because they are not immediately recognized as foreign. These cells are known to secrete molecules called trophic factors as they help to repair damaged tissues. The trophic factors derive from mesenchymal stem cells are reputable for repairing damaged nervous tissues in both the brain and spinal cord. Some of these cells contain neurotrophic factors that aids in promoting neuronal growth, induce the growth of new blood vessel, activates neurogenesis and astroglial, encourage synaptic connection and axonal remyelination, decrease programed cell death, and regulate microglial activation.

While animal studies show that mesenchymal stem cell can migrate into the brain and survive, mesenchymal stem cells are known to stimulate the brain repair function after stroke and traumatic brain injury.

Because we make use of allogeneic cord tissues derived from mesenchymal stem cells while treating Cerebral palsy, we are able to provide effective treatments to any qualified patient and not just those who saved their own cord blood at birth.

Advantages of allogeneic cord-derived stem cells.

Although there are reputable evidence to support that bone marrow-derived mononuclear cells are safe and can improve the quality of life in children with neurological disorders, including cerebral palsy, through our administration of mesenchymal stem cells, we have recorded immense improvements in cerebral palsy patients being treated in our facilities.