An interview with Dr. Michael G. Chez was recently published by the website MedicalResearch.com. Dr. Chez is the Director of Pediatric Neurology Sutter Memorial Hospital and the Director of the Pediatric Epilepsy and Autism Programs Sutter Neuroscience Group. He talked in detail about how cord blood stem cells may be able to improve the symptoms of autism in children.
Dr. Chez recently ran a clinical trial that tested the use of autologous cord blood stem cells on autistic children. It was a pilot cross over double blind study that was designed to test how a transfusion of a person’s own stem cells could reduce autism symptoms.
The trial used cord blood stem cells, which are obtained from the umbilical cord after a child is born. The umbilical cord contains is a rich source stem cells, many of which are already used for various medical procedures.
Dr. Chez said they used cord blood stem cells because they are a safe source of stem cells. That’s because a person will not experience stem cell rejection or an autoimmune reaction when receiving their own stem cells.
The subjects received either a placebo/stem cell or stem cell/placebo transfusion, spaced 6 months apart. Subjects were tested every 3 months and observed for a year in total.
The research team discovered that the transfusion of stem cells was safe, with no subjects having a negative reaction. Some test subjects saw a strong improvement in their socialisation scores soon after receiving cord blood stem cells.
While Dr. Chez believes the findings are positive, he suggests that subsequent tests should have larger groups of test subjects. He also said that better language testing would deliver more authoritative results.
Source: Umbilical Cord Blood Stem Cells May Improve Symptoms in Children with Autism
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