Cord blood: Banking on false hopes?

In Houston, Dr. James Baumgartner, a clinical assistant professor in pediatric surgery at the University of Texas Medical Center at Houston, saw the Dallas Hextell case on television and was intrigued. Several years ago, he began studying whether stem cells from bone marrow helped children with traumatic brain injuries. He is now planning a similar study in such children using their own cord blood.

"I think there is something to it," said Baumgartner, who examined Dallas. "I don't understand the mechanism. But Dr. Kurtzberg has shown that it's reasonable and safe to do."

A cord blood trial launched by Haller, of the University of Florida, began after a parent of a patient with Type 1 diabetes remarked one day, "I have her umbilical cord blood stored. Can you do anything with it?"

The idea struck Haller as "not completely irrational." The umbilical cord produces cells that keep a pregnant woman's body from recognizing the placenta and fetus as foreign and rejecting them. Perhaps these same cells could dampen the immune system's attack on the pancreas in Type 1 diabetes.

Haller also knew that researchers had reported reversing diabetes in mice by taking bone marrow from one animal and infusing it into an identical sibling.

His data, presented in June 2007 at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Assn., showed that six months after the infusions, seven children, ages 2 to 7, required significantly less insulin and maintained better control of blood-sugar levels than a control group. He expects to publish one-year data on 15 children this year.

Kenneth and Kim Catanzarite learned about Haller's trial after their son Kenny, now 9, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in May 2007. The Newport Beach family had saved his cord blood because it sounded like a smart thing to do.

Kenny received a cord blood infusion in August 2007. Kenneth Catanzarite is convinced the therapy helped his son maintain some of his body's ability to produce insulin. Kenny still requires two shots of insulin a day, but in much smaller amounts than had been expected.

"I was told that by nine months out [after diagnosis], he wouldn't be producing any more insulin," Catanzarite says. "But about 20% of his daily requirement is still being produced by his own body. . . . In my view, it has made his life easier."

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