Umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells used for COVID-19 trial
Patients from Jackson Memorial Hospital and the University Miami Tower are involved; many with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).
I think this could be a turning point,” said Dr. Camillo Ricordi, director of the Cell Transplant Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
According to Ricordi, the ground-breaking treatment uses stem cells found in a baby’s umbilical cord.
The trial shows that recovery time is faster for some of the most ill patients.
We just published the study that using stem cells derived from the umbilical cord of a healthy newborn baby. We generally throw away the placenta that is discarded after birth. But we are using cells that are extracted and expand from that umbilical cord. That can generate and provide therapeutic doses for over 10,000 patients from a single umbilical cord. It is an amazing result,” he said.
Ricordi, one of the lead researchers of the study, said treating coronavirus patients with these mesenchymal stem cells just made sense.
When the COVID pandemic exploded, I called our collaborators in China, saying, ‘Why don’t we try to use these cells in COVID?’ Because they have the same properties that help us fight autoimmune conditions,” he explained.