Kochi University Medical School Center for Innovative and Translational Medicine Regenerative Medicine Group Cord Blood Stem Cell Team

Cerebral palsy is caused by brain damage occurred in fetal and neonatal period, and is a incurable diseases that impairs physical and mental capabilities for life.　There is no fundamental therapy for cerebral palsy, without a symptomatic treatment such as rehabilitation. In 2006, Kurtzberg lab in Duke University has developed a breakthrough treatment that can improve the cerebral palsy using autologous blood stem cells in cord blood frozen reserved at birth. According to its extremely high efficiency, University of Arizona and Medical College of Georgia have started clinical trials. In Japan, there is increasing possibility of clinical trials for cerebral palsy treatment using umbilical cord blood stem cell. Before the start of clinical studies, basic research is very important, and it brings the elucidation of the mechanisms and improvement the methods of treatment. Our research team has created a mouse model for cerebral palsy. We evaluate the functional improvement after treatment, and investigate the blood stem cell differentiation and interaction with other stem cells particularly with neural stem cells by using the our mouse of cerebral palsy. We believe this new treatment using umbilical cord blood stem cell will develop for indication to treat other diseases.