Autologous transplantation of stem cells that had been cryopreserved in Biohellenika’s accredited labs in a child suffered from cerebral palsy in Hematology Clinic of Duke University.
On 28-7-2009 Professor Joanne Kurtzberg Head of the Hematology Clinic in the Duke University of USA administered with success an autologous stem cell cord blood graft that were cryopreserved in Biohellenika’s labs. The graft was cryopreserved in three cryovials since the beginning of 2006, few months after Biohellenika’s establishment. The vials were sent to the Hematology clinic in one of the special Voyager tank that the company has. The infusion of the cells was completed successfully in 10 minutes with absolute no side effects from the administration. The whole procedure was running normally, because the preservative DMSO that Biohellenika’s samples have is in very small quantity. Biohellenika with its own method, that was published in Cytotherapy medical journal in 2007, preserves clear population of nucleated cells and removes the red blood cells almost totally, that finally do not have any function as stem cells. So the final cryopreserved volume is very small and so the amount of cryoprotectand DMSO. The child 2 hours later left the hospital and next day the USA. This graft is the 20th sample of Biohellenika up until today that has been administered to a patient and the first that has been administered from a Hematologic clinic of the USA, abroad Greece. One month later the child was able to make small sentences and to communicate with the parents and the sister better. The speech was the first sight of improvement. Today, four months later, according to the parents this is a very different child, with a lot of improvements in the walk, the strength and the self-confidence as it is obvious of her willing to participate in group games. This is a new beginning for the family and as they describe is like to turn a page and left behind difficult conditions. They also know that the way will be long, but realizing the improvement of their child every day, are very optimistic. The improvement was noticed also by the therapist who doesn’t know the treatment. We wish a continuous improving of the child’s health and also we congratulate the parents for their decision to cryopreserve the child’s stem cells for a running day. This precaution saved their child’s life.