Cerebral palsy, the most common physical disability in childhood, causes a wide range of physical symptoms, such as difficulties in walking and coordinating movements. While no definite cure has yet been discovered, researchers at Royan Institute are looking into umbilical cord blood stem cells, which have already proven useful for treating leukemia, as a potential treatment for cerebral palsy.
Dr. Morteza Zarrabi, a faculty member at Royan and the CEO of Umbilical Cord Blood Stem Cell Bank, told Mehr News that so far, nearly 27 agencies for cord blood bank have been launched across the country; “we have managed to store nearly 67,000 samples in private banks and 5,000 samples in public banks so far,” he added.
“Since umbilical cord blood stem cells can produce blood, they have the most applications in treating blood diseases such as thalassemia, leukemia, immune deficiency, and congenital anemia,” he said.
He went on to add, “we have started working on a project to use umbilical cord blood stem cells in treating cerebral palsy and other conditions that lead to neurological damage in the skull.”
He noted that the project has been conducted on children with cerebral palsy, adding “so far, we have obtained good results and hope to start treatment as soon as the results of the transplant have been determined.”
“We are making efforts to cooperate with transplant centers to increase the number of cells that can be used for treating malignant diseases,” he added.
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