Biomedical Engineering Reference
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and therefore requires less accuracy to match (Kline, 2001). Thus,
where for bone marrow matching at least five of the six HLAs
should be matched, with umbilical cord blood three HLAs have been
shown to be sufficient to produce very good clinical outcomes for
the recipient (Kline, 2001). A 1997 clinical study in which 143
patients were treated with umbilical cord blood rather than bone
marrow further concluded that umbilical cord blood transplants
were in fact much safer than bone marrow transplants (Kline, 2001).
There are also far more cord-blood stores in public banks worldwide
than there are bone marrow donors listed on public registries (Kline,
2001). Whether banked publicly or privately, the use of umbilical
cord blood has provided both therapeutic and commercial outcomes
that have been unprecedented in the stem cell sciences.
4.2
Adult stem cell science in the twenty-first century
Beyond the development of the clinical uses of haematopoietic stem
cells, mesenchymal and epithelial cells are currently being developed
for a range of applications. Some of these applications include:
several products for bone regeneration and post-heart attack
recovery being developed by Australian based company Mesoblast
in collaboration with their American partners Angioblast;
a trial using mesenchymal stem cells for the treatment of the
degenerative bone disorder osteoarthritis being developed by
another Australian company Regeneus;
the clinical and commercial development of fat derived stem cells
for body modification in patients with and without existing soft
tissue injuries; and
the application of epithelial cells for vision repair.
￿ ￿ ￿ ￿ ￿
Along with haematopoietic stem cells, mesenchymal stem cells are
also found in bone marrow and umbilical cord blood. Mesenchymal
stem cells are thought to produce bone, fat, cartilage and connective
tissue at minimum, with considerable debate about what other
tissues they might in fact produce too (Charbord, 2010). Mesenchymal
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