Vita34 AG
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Deutscher Platz 5a
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Vita 34 is Germany's leading umbilical cord blood bank and stores the cord blood of more than 60,000 children (as of Aug '09). Since 1997, Vita 34 provides the proper processing and cryopreservation of the preparations, so that the cord blood, which is rich in pluripotent stem cells and readily available in case of illness. To this Vita 34 has its own high-tech laboratory in the BioCity Leipzig.
In the product variant Vita 34 max additional tests are offered, which identify subsequent damages, including liver damage, caused by medication or food intolerances in children, at an early stage.
Products
- stem cell banking
- cord blood banking
- Vita 34
- Vita 34 max
- DNA Screenings
Regenerative Medicine
For the treatment of patients with liver disease, liver damage or liver cancer, regenerative medicine offers promising prospects. In the relatively new field of medicine, the healing power of autologous stem cells is able to repair parts of tissue, but also complex organs like the liver. Physicians use autologous stem cells since these are not repelled from the body and the taking of immunosuppressive medications becomes redundant.
Procedure to treat liver cancer
Physicians at the Heinrich-Heine University in Düsseldorf have already succeeded in developing a method against liver cancer. 2007 the study was published where eight patients were treated with their own stem cells from bone marrow. The success was impressive because the livers of the patients already were destroyed with over 80% of metastases and malignant tumors. In this therapy, the remaining healthy tissue is stabilized and increased that it can take over the metabolic functions for the entire body. Therefore the blood supply to the diseased tissue gets diminished gradually. At the same time own stem cells are given, which move independently in the affected area and thus accelerate the cell proliferation. Only one of the eight patients developed a subsequent tumor after treatment. All other patients remained, in part over the past three years, cancer free.
Using stem cells for liver cirrhosis and other liver damages
Stem cells should also lead to progress in the treatment of liver cirrhosis and chronic liver damage. British researchers took advantage of autologous bone marrow stem cells, which they increased fivefold, to treat patients with liver cirrhosis. All nine patients have tolerated the therapy well and showed clearly positive liver enzymes a few weeks after the treatment.
Stem cells from cord blood can be used also for treating hepatitis. To this result scientists of the Spanish University Granada in cooperation with the University Léon came. After transplantation of stem cells within an experiment one could recognize that the stem cells automatically find the way to the diseased Liver and apply their regenerative abilities. Also when treating acute liver failure one can hope for improvements. The current practice allows in such case only a liver transplantation. But this approach is strongly delimited through the low number of fitting donor organs.
New liver from umbilical cord blood
British scientists have built a liver artificially for the first time. As basis for the new liver, stem cells from umbilical cord blood were used. Currently it is just a miniature liver. But this liver is fully functional and can be used in medical research to test new drugs. In the opinion of Professor Colin McGuckin of Newcastle University that is already a great success: "By using the mini-liver, we have developed; there is no reason to carry out more tests in animals or humans." The production of liver sections from umbilical cord blood for transplantation in patients with liver damage should be possible within the next 15 years, McGuckin says.
Stem cells from cord blood offer, compared with stem cells from bone marrow, a few advantages. They are rapidly available, very young and notedly viable. According to Italian researchers the stem cells work in several ways. Firstly they move into the liver where they convert directly in liver cells or fuse with liver cells. Secondly they promote regeneration of the liver through the growth of new blood vessels and pouring of growth factors.