I checked out Clinicaltrials/gov and thought that the most exciting development there was with premature infants and cord blood transfusion. Probably I'm biased cause that's my area of interest and expertise. However, the infusion of cord blood cells for treatment of intraventricular hemorrhage and other conditions seems spot on to me. When a premature baby is born, the drill is to get a designated donor for O neg cells which are actually stored in 50 ml alliquots. They are kept on hand for tiny babies with multiple blood tests as they commonly need transfusion.
A better alternative would be to harvest the infant's cord blood cells and save the blood product for later administration when needed. From my corner of the world the challenge I keep hearing about is the collection and harvesting so we may be a few years away but so interesting it is.
A few years back it was discovered that premature babies actually gained weight quicker and went home sooner if the conditions of a mother's womb were recreated as much as possible. In other words, if you could keep the environment quiet and dark it is less stressful for the baby who expends fewer calories. Believe it or not, they did studies with rats who were submerged in fluid on respirators to see how far they could take the "womb simulation" thing. That didn't go so well but it was creative.
OK so now I'll get to the point lol...to me umbilical cord blood admin is a natural extension of the idea of preserving all that a womb has to offer(dark, quiet, blood cell supply etc.) for a premature infant and has incredible future potential! I don't work at a major academic center currently but I am going to check this out further with some of my physician colleagues who do.
AI
