Cord Blood Coupon » liao brothers http://www.cordbloodcoupon.net Cord Blood Coupon, Basic Facts, and News Thu, 20 Nov 2008 21:01:10 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 en hourly 1 Brother’s Deadly Skin Condition Cured With Sibling’s Stem Cells http://www.cordbloodcoupon.net/brothers-deadly-skin-condition-cured-with-siblings-stem-cells/ http://www.cordbloodcoupon.net/brothers-deadly-skin-condition-cured-with-siblings-stem-cells/#comments Wed, 04 Jun 2008 03:53:18 +0000 admin http://www.cordbloodcoupon.net/?p=65 University doctors used an experimental stem cell treatment for two brothers with a rare skin disease that most often ends in skin cancer and death before adulthood. The Liao boys, younger brother Nate and older brother Jake, suffered from a disease called recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB).  People with this condition cannot produce a protein necessary to form one of the collagens that hold layers of skin together.

The disease has devastating effects. The slightest pressure or bump forms huge blisters on the skin. The blisters cause the skin to slough off.  The same process affects the lining of the mouth, esophagus and intestinal tract, making it impossible for children to eat normally. There was no treatment for this disease. That is, there was no treatment until the experimental process used on Nate and Jake.

Doctors at the University of Minnesota provided this treatment through a bone marrow stem cell transplant on each brother.  They collected cord blood and bone marrow stem cells from a healthy sibling of Nate and Jake. They first treated two-year-old Nate, despite that trying this experimental technique was a big medical risk. Until then, it had only been tested on mice. Theresa Liao’s two year-old had already lost fingers and bore numerous scars due to the disorder. Knowing there was no existing cure, she felt they had little to lose by trying.

To the great joy of the boys’ family, as well as the surgeons, the procedure worked. The boy’s doctors believe they have found a cure for the painful disease. He said, “It’s not often that it feels like you hit a home run in medical research, but this one feels like it.”

Nate’s brother Jake was the second to receive a bone marrow transplant. In California there is currently a clinical research trial that will include 30 patients.

Though the successful results were gradually more and more visible in Nate’s skin, shortly after his procedure, tests showed that he was developing the missing collagen in his skin and in his intestinal tract. The doctors believe that the stem cells somehow find their way from the bone marrow to damaged skin cells. The stem cells then start making the missing protein. Scientists still don’t know how the stem cells detect that a protein is missing, but the clinical trial proved that they cause the body to generate it.
The results are clearly visible in the Liam boys who are now able to eat and live normally. The Liams hope the miraculous change in Nate and Jake give other parents hope.
Read more at the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
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