Magnum opus in Royan Stem Cell Technology Company

The world’s 12^th successful autologous cord blood transplant¹ for a child with Aplastic Anemia was performed in Iran, applying the hematopoietic stem cells from umbilical cord blood that had been banked in Royan Stem Cell Technology Company.

Karen is a 6-year old boy who suffered from bone marrow failure. To treat this diagnosis, experts usually give an allogeneic transplant in which the patient receives stem cells from another person - often a sibling, but sometimes an unrelated donor. But for Karen, the search for a donor proved exceptionally difficult and became an obstacle. Great amounts of time and effort were spared to find a matching bone marrow donor for Karen, but all the efforts were in vain and not even a single match could be found.

Since his birth, 6 years ago, Karen’s own umbilical cord blood stem cells had been banked at Royan Stem Cell Technology Company. Thus the treatment team proposed to give Karen an autologous transplant in which his own stem cells that had been collected in advance are returned at a later stage.

But this idea didn’t reach to a consensus initially and was refused by the experts. Nevertheless, after more searching for a bone marrow donor proved fruitless, a crucial decision had to be made as soon as possible. Ultimately, the treatment team under the supervision of Dr. Bahoosh, an oncologist, decided to take the solution they had in hand, to use Karen’s autologous cord blood stem cells banked at Royan Stem Cell Technology Company. The transplantation was performed in Ali Asghar Hospital despite the limited facilities available there for such a purpose.

Regardless all the complications which might have been raised during Karen’s treatment, both the expected and the unpredictable, this transplantation was performed in great success. According to Dr. Bahoosh, transplantation is a great achievement in treatment in such patients since there is always a concern of rejection. Dr. Bahoosh was pleased that all Karen’s test results were satisfactory and showed a positive progressive trend, including the critical matter of platelet recovery.

This transplantation surgery was successfully performed in a fruitful collaboration of Royan Stem Cell Technology Company and Ali Asghar Hospital, under the supervision of Dr. Bahoosh.  We, at Royan Stem Cell Technology Company, consider it as a MIRACLE in this realm of science. This autologous cord blood transplant for Aplastic Anemia was only the 12^th performed worldwide, but is the first in Iran and all of the Middle East nations.  This reveals further the life-saving potential hidden in the heart of umbilical cord blood stem cells. Once again, the stem cells of umbilical cord blood saved a life and brought spark of hope back to a family left stranded in a desperate situation.

As providers of stem cell storage for families, we are supposed to move heaven and earth to take up the cudgels on behalf of humanity and a healthy nation which is considered as the infrastructure of each stable community. This can be put into effect and brought into existence through an untiring research work and under the umbrella of reciprocal scientific collaboration and contribution worldwide.

 References

1. Based on the confidential list of therapies released from family cord blood banks maintained by Parent’s Guide to Cord Blood Foundation