Babies are always miracles (Cystic Fibrosis and stem cells)

Exciting news out of Australia, concering umbilical cord stem cell therapy and Cystic Fibrosis research. Unfortunately, the very informative article has a silly title, "Will baby Aiden be a miracle?" Aiden is already a miracle, of course.

The story, from the Herald Sun in Melborne, Victoria, Australia, explains that both Aiden and his older sister have cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease of the endocrine (secretion-producing) glands that causes problems with excessively thick mucus in the lungs and pancreas.Aiden's miracle was noted by the Victoria news because he was the first baby that we know about who donated his cord blood for stem cell research on treatments for Cystic Fibrosis.

We often diagnose the babies because someone notices their excessively salty sweat. Children tend to grow slowly, due to clogged ducts that won't allow digestive enzymes to pass into the intestines. The thickened mucus in the lungs clogs the airways, encouraging frequent pneumonias that lead to hospitalizations and constant treatment to loosen the mucus in the lungs. Medical advances, including improved antibiotics, "asthma" medicines and treatments, and pancreatic enzymes in tablet form which have been developed and improved in the last 20-30 years has enabled the life expectancy of patients with CF to increase from the low teens to the 30's or even 40 plus years old. Now, there's another miracle.


The disease is recessive, meaning that both parents must be carriers for the child to have it. And one in 25 of us with European heritage are carriers.


Scientists have already been able to produce lung cells from the stem cells in umbilical cord blood. (Betcha didn't know that, from the skewed coverage in the mainstream media. Virtually every line of specialized cells have been developed from adult and umbilical cord stem cells.) Now, we hope that the research on Aiden's stem cells will lead us to treatment and, maybe, a cure, by learning how to grow replacement tissue from a child's own stem cells. Now, that's "patient-specific stem cells."