Posted on 03/09/2007 7:21:31 AM PST by Incorrigible
By KITTA MACPHERSON
NEWARK, N.J. — A Livingston hospital has launched what is believed to be the country's first formal program devoted to encouraging expectant families to bank both placental and umbilical cord stem cells.
Officials at St. Barnabas Medical Center, where the most New Jersey babies are born each year, said yesterday they have established the program with LifebankUSA of Cedar Knolls, a division of Celgene, a Summit biotechnology company.
"We felt the research of the Celgene scientists held such promise that it would be worth it for our patients to know about it,'' said Richard Miller, who chairs the department of obstetrics and gynecology at St. Barnabas. "It's for those who are willing to make that investment today for the promise of very exciting potential therapies in the future.''
Stem cells, the building blocks of tissue, blood and the immune system, can renew indefinitely and form specialized types of cells like blood and nerve cells. Those taken from the placenta and umbilical cord are categorized as "adult'' stem cells because they are not drawn from embryos. Their more controversial, highly flexible cousins, known as embryonic stem cells, are loathed by some because the process of extracting them destroys the embryo.
The stem cells extracted at St. Barnabas will be stored in cryogenic tanks at Lifebank. The company was the first in the country last May to offer placental stem cell banking.
Working with medical center physicians will be a boon to the biotech firm as well, according to Robert Hariri, who founded Lifebank in 1998 and still heads it under the auspices of Celgene. "It's important in these programs to work at an efficiency and volume where the physicians that are involved in this process and selection become true experts,'' Hariri said.
He first approached St. Barnabas physicians nearly a decade ago with his idea to extract stem cells from umbilical cords. The doctors, whom Hariri described as "a superb group of physicians,'' were open-minded and allowed him to start a small-scale program with patients, his first in the state.
With "stem cell'' now a household phrase, the hospital's embrace of a more formalized program is evidence that the technology has gone mainstream, said Hariri. "The physicians there understand that in order to provide patients with the highest level of service, they'd better become knowledgeable about this and choose a group to work with who is at the top of their game,'' he added.
Through the program, physicians will be more consistently trained, officials said. The hospital also will add comprehensive information about stem cell banking to its smorgasbord of course offerings for new parents.
For Miller of St. Barnabas, a parent's decision on whether to store stem cells taken from a baby's umbilical cord and placenta should be based on common sense. In the same way, the hospital teaches expectant parents to ward off childhood injuries and traffic fatalities by designing safer homes and purchasing appropriate car seats, he said.
He doesn't want young parents to feel pressured by cord blood companies competing for business. Private companies like Lifebank charge up to several thousand dollars for extracting the cells, plus a yearly storage fee. Some public banks provide free storage but cannot guarantee that a patient's own cells will be available if needed.
Miller also wants to make sure that educational outreach to patients doesn't become a masked commercial pitch.
"This is not something we are going to push them to buy,'' Miller said. "We hope to make this part of their health care choice.''
(Kitta MacPherson writes about science for The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J. She can be contacted at kmacpherson(at)starledger.com.)
Not for commercial use. For educational and discussion purposes only.
That's the first time I've ever heard that these stem cells are categorized this way.
Bump
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