New research performed on mice suggests that immune cells found in umbilical cord blood are much more efficient at destroying leukaemia cells compared to adult immune cells. Scientists were surprised by the findings, because they considered these immature cells to be somewhat naive and incapable of recognising leukaemia cells as well as adult immune system cells.

It turns out the umbilical cord blood stem cells are very efficient, despite not having the lifelong training of older cells. They can actually recognise and destroy abnormal cells extremely quickly.

People with blood cancers like leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma usually undergo chemotherapy to kill the blood cells responsible for the cancer. Unfortunately, the process also kills healthy blood cells and bone marrow. Doctors can use a bone marrow transplant or stem cells from cord blood to restore the production of healthy blood cells after chemotherapy treatments.

When patients receive a bone marrow or umbilical cord blood stem cells transplant, the new tissue can also hunt down any remaining cancer cells in the body. Scientists realised that stem cells from cord blood were particularly efficient at hunting down the remaining cancer cells throughout the body. 

There is an additional benefit obtained from using umbilical cord blood stem cells — the risk of rejection is lower because they are very young cells. It is also easier to find a match between a stem cell donor and a recipient because the young cells are less likely to trigger immune system rejection in the recipient. 

It was a long held belief that the benefits obtained from umbilical cord blood stem cells were offset by a reduced ability to hunt down remnant cancer cells. This research proves the opposite is true!

To make the discovery, scientists injected immune cells or cord blood into mice with B-cell lymphoma. Tumours from the cancer disappeared more rapidly in mice who were given cord blood stem cells. In some mice, the adult immune cells didn’t treat the cancer at all.

They found out that stem cells from cord blood triggered the rapid production of CD4 cells — white blood cells which help the immune system respond to tumours and viruses. The immune system cells that actually remove the tumour, “CD8”, also appeared more rapidly.

Source: Umbilical blood cells kill cancer quicker than adult cells

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