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You may have heard that the stem cells in your baby’s umbilical-cord blood can save lives, but if you’re like most people, you have only a vague notion of how stem cells work — or which diseases they can treat. Right now, certain cancers, blood disorders, and immune disorders, among other conditions, are being successfully treated with cord-blood stem cells — and thanks to cord blood research, the list of conditions and diseases that may be treated by these stem cells is growing.

Why is it important to know about the cord blood research and what types of diseases it can treat? Knowing what cord blood can and can’t do may influence your decision to store your baby’s cord blood with a private bank (for your family’s use) or donate it to a public bank. Here are the facts you should keep in mind as you consider private or public cord blood banking:

Cord Blood Basics 
Cord blood is the blood left over in your baby’s umbilical cord immediately after birth. (Your practitioner harvests the blood in a quick, easy, and painless procedure.) The reason this blood is so valuable is because it contains hematopoietic stem cells, which are cells that have the ability to develop into any type of specialized cell in the blood and immune system and replace or repair these types of damaged cells throughout the body. That makes cord blood ideal for transplantation — the stem cells mutate and regenerate to form healthy blood and immune cells — and makes it a standard treatment for certain diseases such as cancers, blood disorders, bone-marrow-failure syndromes, metabolic disorders, immune-system deficiencies, and other inherited disorders. Even though bone marrow and circulating blood are also used for transplantation when treating these diseases, cord blood is often a better choice because it doesn’t have to match a patient’s tissue type as closely as donated bone marrow or circulating blood does.

Your baby’s cord blood may be used for your child (known as autologous use) or for a close family member (known as allogeneic use), or it may be donated to a public bank and used by a person unrelated to you who in is in need of a transplant and has a similar tissue type (this is also known as allogeneic use).

Cord Blood’s Benefits Now
Currently, there are over 80 diseases that can be treated and potentially cured with the help of a cord-blood transplant. They include:

·         Cancers, including cancers of the blood-immune system (leukemia); those of the lymph system (lymphoma); bone-marrow cancers (multiple myeloma); cancers of the eye (retinoblastoma); and those of the nervous system (neuroblastoma).

·         Blood disorders, including many forms of anemias, which are deficiencies or malformations of red blood cells necessary for carrying oxygen to the body.

·         Bone-marrow-failure syndromes or deficiencies in the bone marrow. These include red-cell aplasia (a condition in which bone marrow lacks red blood cell precursors) and severe aplastic anemia (when bone marrow doesn’t produce enough new cells to replenish blood cells).

·         Metabolic disorders, which are a result of abnormal chemical reactions in the body that disrupt the way it processes energy from food. These conditions include Gaucher’s disease, Hunter syndrome, and Hurler syndrome.

·         Immune-system disorders, which prevent the body from fending off infections, such as X-linked immunodeficiency and severe combined immunodeficiency (also known as “bubble boy” disease).

·         Other inherited disorders such as osteoporosis.

If you have a family member who has a disease that’s treatable with cord blood now, cord blood research shows that transplants from related donors are more successful than ones from nonrelated donors. Still, experts are divided as to how likely it is that your baby will need his own cord blood to cure a disease he may develop in the future. That’s because many diseases that affect the blood and immune systems (and might be helped by cord-blood stem cells) may already exist in your baby’s cord blood. So, for example, if your child has a genetic form of lymphoma, his cord blood may contain that same genetic mutation and wouldn’t be a feasible transplant option — but matched cord blood from a family member, such as a sibling, could be a treatment option.

Cord Blood Research: Future Treatments
What does the future hold for cord blood? Preliminary and promising research through clinical and experimental trials suggests that the stem cells may be able to treat autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes and lupus, neurological conditions such as cerebral palsy, and Parkinson’s disease, brain and spinal-cord injuries, stroke, cardiovascular disease, liver disease, kidney disease, and breast cancer, among other illnesses. So regardless of whether you choose to donate or privately store your baby’s blood, remember that cord-blood banking is proving to be a rich source of life-saving treatments — now and in the future, as the possibilities of cord blood continue to expand.

 

The study appeared in the most recent issue of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine. 

TBI patients at Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital from 2000 to 2008 were divided into two groups: those who received autologous bone marrow stem cells as part of a pilot study and those who did not. Researchers used the Pediatric Intensity Level of Therapy score to determine the degree of therapeutic intensity that was done to reduce the cranial pressure below the danger zone. 

For those who received the stem cells, researchers noted a significant reduction in the score beginning at 24 hours post-treatment through the first week. Patients who did not receive the stem cells spent nearly twice as much time in neurointensive care - 15.6 days compared to 8.2. 

"Everything we do to treat traumatic brain injury is aimed at reducing the pressure in the brain," said Dr.Charles S. Cox, Jr., principal investigator, professor and the George and Cynthia Mitchell Distinguished Chair in Neurosciences at UTHealth and co-director of the Texas Trauma Institute at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center. "We can measure the pressure and there are medications to reduce the water in the brain but all of those have risks associated with them, such as renal failure and kidney problems. Our study showed that with stem cell therapy, we need to do less intervention for a shorter period of time for the patient."

Source: Eurekalert

He had suffered Chemo-Therapy for a couple of times, but each time the disease relapsed after a short while. To save his life, the experts reached to this consensus that Stem Cells Transplantation would be the only solution and of course, the most reasonable one.

       Amir Hossein has got two more siblings whose bone marrows were not matched with the one of Amir Hossein, while the stem cells of his younger brother, Amir Taha, whose cord blood was saved in Royan Stem Cell Technology Company, saved his life because it was completely matched with the ones of Amir Hossein, up to %100.

      In the dim light of Amir Hossein’s life, Cord Blood Stem Cells appeared as the early dawn and opened new horizon to his future life. Now he has got new hope and is making plans for his new life. He wishes to become an engineer in oil and gas industry and serve his country.

      We know there are lots more young boys and girls just like Amir Hossein and we find ourselves accountable to them and to the whole human communities as well. We are keen on this principle and move heaven and earth to put it into effect and bring all people’s hope into existence.

  This motto is well known by those who are familiar with literature, as it was the belief and of “The Three Musketeers” who fought for humanity and equity. Those who didn’t take the world for granted and were symbols of freedom, kind-hearted and generosity.

      Such a soul can be touched throughout our company as well since, we at Royan Stem Cell Technology Company move heaven and earth to keep it alive in good faith and do our utmost to put such a faith into act.

      End of the year means lots of backlogs to be done and putting an end to all or almost most of them. No doubt, we are not an exception and find ourselves in a short of time and cramped conditions with pile of duties supposed to be over. But even under such intermingled circumstances, we can find spare time to enjoy ourselves even at a lunch table.

     It was something happened here in our company as we are approaching the end of the year and we take advantage of every single moment to share some joyful time with our colleagues in a cosy condition.

   In the meantime, as the previous years, the End-of-Year Ceremony was held at Royan Stem Cell Technology, Kowsar Gathering hall through which all company staff came together once more. During the ceremony Dr.Zarrabi, Managing Director of the Company, represented a lecture bringing up some points in regard with the triumphs and achievements made through the last year. He also pointed to the failures and deficits we faced on our way and considered them as the lessons to be kept in mind so that we turn them into advantages and a bridge toward future development. Ayatollah Gholamy was also present in this ceremony and made a speech about some ethical issues and the facts to be observed as we start the New Year. At the end, the staff were entertained with pastries and drinks and received their gifts provided by the company. 

   We all know that the path before us toward development and success would not be that easy and smooth as some may think. We know barriers may rise ironically every other day causing a new challenge and we have experienced deep griefs in parts of our careers, but we take them as fire glazing our spirit and the ladders to be climbed up to bring our dreams into truth.

 

MAY GOD BLESS ALL

HAPPY NEW YEAR

 

On the occasion of the 10^th anniversary of Royan Stem Cell Technology Co; we would like to share our proud and happiness on achievements and progresses we have made so far with our esteemed colleagues and counterparts and all scientific communities and associations all over the world.

 Bringing the importance of umbilical cord blood and growing global findings of the research made on cord blood stem cells into consideration, along with a growing trend in public understanding about stem cells and diseases could be cured by these cells, Royan Stem Cell Technology was founded in 2005 as a joint venture of Royan Institute and LIDCO Company (as the investor) to collect, process and store the umbilical cord blood stem cells. This is both a Private and Public bank (Hybrid Bank) and since the beginning, nearly 50,000 samples have been stored and about 7 stored samples have gone for transplantation purposes up to now. The data represented through this brief, on the occasion of the 10^th anniversary of Royan Stem Cell Technology Company, refers mainly to the Private Bank.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Right now, we have got 23 offices nationwide and have opened one in Iraq, Erbil which all are actively involved in this field. Table 1 shows the growing trend of our offices through the previous years.

 

 

Growing number of offices in previous years.

 

It should be stated here that the more public understanding about cord blood banking, the more number of expected parents referring to our bank to get their coming infants cord blood stored. This increasing rate can be observed in the table represented below.

Increasing rate in number of contracts made through the last years

 

Though, we, in Royan Cord Blood Bank and Stem Cell Technology Company, observe all rules and standards strictly, there has been a fast growing number in the samples stored.

Number of samples frozen through the last years.

 We have successfully achieved a variety of international standards such as:  ISO 9001:2088 in collecting and processing cord blood stem cells, ISO 1800 1: 2007 and ISO 1400 1: 2004 in ECO friendly and environment preserving, and ISO 100002 in observing customer’s rights. We are constantly observed and investigated by URS Company, a British based company considering the compatibility with global standards. At present, we are making our effort to achieve some more standards such as: Fact-Netcord, AABB and Ihram Ministry of Health.

Right now, this company has hired more than 109 staff directly and created more than 400 job opportunities indirectly all around Iran.

Right now, we perform all quality control tests including HLA Typing, Flow cytometery, Serology, Microbiology and Cloning Assay. The process and dividing the stem cells are done both manually and automatically ( Sepax Method). The main Serology tests being performed on the cord blood samples are as follows:

ü  HBS.Ag

ü  Anti-HBS

ü  Anti-HBC

ü  CMV (IgG,IgM)

ü  HCV.Ab

ü  HIV PCR

ü  HCV PCR

ü  HTLV

ü  RPR

 

 

Our HLA bank has stored the genetic centers of more than 30,000 shown in the table below.

 

Number of samples stored in HLS Bank through the last years

 

The following table represents the number of demands made on HLA demanding and the consequent results.

 

Royan Cord Blood and Stem Cell Technology Company enjoys a Research and Development Department ( R&D) through which we make a research and clinical study on a wide variety of diseases could be cured with stem cells. No wonder, as we go ahead with new findings and potentials regarding cord blood stem cells, R&D department finds itself in arena of making crucial efforts on the path toward organizational development and enrichment.

In the meantime, thanks to our scientific staff and researchers, we have taken fruitful measures in research activities including:

• Releasing and publicizing articles and magazines

• Taking part in various national, regional and international congresses, conferences and exhibitions

• Representing two articles in the 28^th Immunogenic Congress held in Stockholm

• Representing one article about evaluation of blood factors of the cord blood samples stored in cord blood bank and its relationship with CD34  in the 11^th Symposium on cord blood bank held in San Francisco

• Registering a patent on isolating the stem cells of mesenchyme in Wharton Jelly, taking advantage of PBS which is so fast and economic

 

And some more to just name a few. The data represented here are so concise and in brief, not to taking a long time or get you bored. We invite our counterparts from various related scientific communities and centers from far beyond borders to share their experiences, knowledge and experiences with us so that we all can play our roles much more constructive than before and pay the debt we owe to the human communities toward enjoying a healthy life. 

 

A delegation from Royan Stem Cell Technology Company made visits to some cord blood centers to Dubai, including Cells4Life Company and DCRC (Dubai Cord Blood Research Center). During these visits, two sides brought up and discussed many scientific and commercial issues and exchanged their experiences in this regard.

Surprisingly, confessing the growing demand to cord blood stem cells, all participants emphasized on establishing and holding regional scientific society so that it can create, establish and make required arrangements to run regional scientific conferences, congresses and workshops in the arena of Cord Blood, Stem Cells and all related fields.

Further, they all agreed on a thirst to more research on the potentials of Cord Blood Stem Cells still hidden which should be unveiled and quenched through an untiring effort and coalition of all scientists in this realm of science.

At the end, considering the critical features and barriers fallen before this field of activity, all of them found it a necessity to launch a campaign for more research and studies to be conducted under the umbrella of mutual understanding and endeavor.

Royan Delegation also made a visit to Iranian Hospital in Dubai and held meetings with the hospital authorities and toured the new building of the hospital which was guided with Mr.Boka, Equip & Launch Project Manager of hospital. 

The Cord Blood Association has issued interim guidelines for screening cord blood donors to prevent banking any donations that contain Ebola Virus. The concern is to prevent donation from a person who is infected with Ebola Virus but is not yet symptomatic. Public health agencies around the world have cooperated to update their guidelines for screening blood donors, whereas these guidelines apply to cord blood donors.

Ref:  http://parentsguidecordblood.org/news/45/

Royan Medical Tourism Center took part in the 8th Tehran International Tourism Exhibition held on 12-15, February, 2015 in Tehran Permanent Fairground as an Exhibitor holding its stand through this event, we hosted our esteemed guests including officials and authorities of various both state and private organizations so that we could share mutual experiences and interests in the realm of Tourism and Health Tourism Industry. Further, an endeavor was made to represent various features of Royan Medical Tourism Center and Iran as the land of memories.

As stated previously, From tourism point of view, Iran enjoys two important and unique features. The first one is for its exceptional geographical location among the countries in the world. As a strategic point too, Iran acts as a bridge which connects the European and African countries to Asia, as well as the CIS to the Middle East and Persian Gulf region. Such a feature makes a great potential for the Iranian tourism.

The second feature of Iran is its fabulous tourism attractions which may be studied in two aspects: Concerning the extent of various types of tourism, such as historical, cultural, natural, pilgrimage, adventurous tourisms, etc. and the other one is its four season nature and simultaneous access for enjoying aquatic entertainments, such as swimming in one point, and the winter entertainments and sports at another point of Iran.

In addition to above-mentioned features, Iran (Persia) is amongst the pioneers of the global civilization and being as one of the most ancient civilizations ever-discovered throughout the world, so that we can rarely find any important museum in the world where there is no Persian monument or artifact in.

One more fact to be added to the aforementioned feature, is Iranian fast growing medical achievements in curing a vast variety of diseases and wide range of treatment methods exploited by the experts and physicians.

Date: Aug. 2014

Promising new research for ALS/Lou Gehrig’s Disease: U.S. and German scientists have recently created motor-neurons from human umbilical cord stem cells. Motor neurons are responsible for transmitting signals from the brain to muscles to control movement in the body; these cells become impaired in ALS.

Stem cells have been at the forefront of ALS stem cell research due to their ability to change into any cell in the body, including motor neurons. Earlier approaches have focused on the use of highly controversial ‘embryonic’ stem cells, which are obtained from the destruction of human embryos. The use of specially treated umbilical cord stem cells to replace embryonic cells will greatly improve the ability of scientists to study ALS by providing an ethical and safe source of motor-neurons that may be used in ALS research

From 5 to 7 June the 12th Annual International Cord Blood Symposium was held in San Francisco. The meeting was devoted to advances in umbilical cord blood research with a major focus on translational and clinical results in cord blood transplant and in regenerative medicine. Over 3 days, a comprehensive summary of the state of the art was provided. We have summarized the most important data, organized around the following themes: use of umbilical cord blood for tissue repair, new indications for umbilical cord blood unit stem cell transplant (CBU SCT), enhancing count recovery after CBU SCT, improving outcomes, product quality and financial and cost considerations.

In an era of cost containment and declining reimbursement, pricing and costs play an increasing role in determining CBU use. Dr. Shpall summarized the results of cord blood procurement. Procurement of up to two units costs on average of $90 000. This is excessive compared to the overall cost of the transplant, particularly in developing countries.

Muscat: An Iran-based stem cell technology firm has received a positive response from the private and the government sector, to launch their activities in Oman, said a representative of the firm.

"We have received a positive response and many enquiries are coming. We may be able to set up a stem cell technology research institute and a cord blood bank here in Oman," said a representative from Royan Institute.

Royan Institute is a public non-governmental non-profitable organisation established in 1991 by the late Dr Saeid Kazemi Ashtiani as a research institute for reproductive biomedicine and infertility treatments. In 1998, this institute was approved by Iran's Ministry of Health as Cell-based Research Centre.

 

"Now this institute acts as leader of stem cell research and also as one of the best clinics for infertility treatment. It has 46 scientific members and 186 lab technicians. It has three branches, Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology (RI-SCBT), Royan Institute for Reproductive Biomedicine (RI-RB) and Royan Institute for Biotechnology (RI-B)," added the representative.

"Royan Cord Blood Bank, which was founded in 2005 under the institute, has covered the preliminary steps including storing more than 33,000 samples in its public and private banks and opening branches in more than 22 cities nationwide," said the representative while adding that if everything goes according to plan, they will be able to set up their branches, especially cord blood 
banks in Oman.

Meanwhile, a representative from Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC) said that the council has plans to have tie-ups with hospitals in Oman.

"We are having initial level talks. Soon, we may be able to have tie-ups with hospitals in Oman," said Kavitha Mathuvay, manager for market development at MHTC.

"There's an encouraging market growth in Oman. The average since 2010 is almost 50 per cent," said Mathuvay.

For the second time this year, officials from the Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council are visiting Oman to promote Malaysia as a potential destination for medical services. 

The delegation, which also includes representatives from hospitals and three doctors, is participating in the 4th Oman Health Exhibition and Conference. 

"In 2012, there were approximately 1000 Omani patients in Malaysian hospitals, whereas in 2013 there were 1300, meaning the number of Omanis seeking medical consultations and treatments in the Southeast Asian country rose by about 30 per cent," said the manager.

Health exhibition  ends today
Oman Health Exhibition that opened at Oman International Exhibition Centre on Tuesday under the patronage of Sayyid Sultan bin Ya'arub Al Busaidi, Advisor of the Ministry of Health for Health Affairs closes on Thursday.

Reporter can be reached at reji@timesofoman.com

As stated before, Royan Stem Cell Technology Co attended Oman Health Exhibition held on 9^th, Sep, 2014, in Oman, Muscat. This 3-day scientific and commercial event brought together all manufacturers, commercial enterprises and communities involved and interested in medical instruments, human health and health tourism and provided fruitful opportunities of exchanging knowledge and experience among them happened and observed throughout the exhibition.

Royan delegate could also hold meetings with some of counterpart companies and opened discussions and negotiations over some mutual common issues. It also hosted Ambassador of Islamic Republic of Iran in Oman, Oman Health Minister and Cultural Deputy of Iran Embassy in Oman in its stand, representing great details about various aspects of the responsibilities it holds.

Among different achievements made through this exhibition, we can point to an article released by one of local newspapers called “Times of Oman” under the title of:

“Iranian stem cell firm to begin operations in Oman”

 

We regard this as a positive signal of our presence in the light of God’s guidance and wish to keep continue such a growing trend in all international scientific arenas.

To read more about this article the attached file to this news and to get a quick glance of the exhibition, we draw your kind attention to the photo gallery.