Private and public stem cell banks out for blood in Thailand (Feature)

Feb 11, 2009, 5:08 GMT

   Bangkok - Tucked away on the 23rd floor of the posh Central World office building in Bangkok is a hermetically sealed city of the undead.

   'At THAI StemLife city we have 3,000 families at the moment,' said Dr Kostas Papadopoulos, chief operations officer for THAI StemLife company. 'It is a city, a 'moo baan' [Thai for village] of stem cells,' he beamed.

   THAI StemLife is the first private company to offer umbilical cord blood storage facilities to families seeking to preserve their child's stem cells at birth to cure possible blood diseases they may encounter in early adulthood such a leukemia and red blood cell disease thalassaemia, or for other less-proven treatments for cerebral palsy and diabetic ulcers.      

   The company, whose major shareholders are Superior Biotech and StemLife Malaysia, offers its services at Bangkok's leading hospitals at a total cost of 130,000 baht (3,768 dollars), including 40,000 baht for the collection of cord blood from the placenta at birth and a 6,000 baht annual storage fee for the first 21 years.     

   Using blood stem cells for replacing bone marrow to treat diseases is nothing new. The first case was in 1957.

   Thailand's first successful case was in 1995, involving the use of a sibling's umbilical cord blood stem cells to cure a Thai girl suffering from thalassaemia, a deadly genetic disease common in Thailand that is similar to sickle cell anemia.

   More than 1,500 bone marrow transplants for blood diseases have been conducted by Thai hospitals over the past decade but a lack of matching stem cells for transplants limits the practice.

   'Two out of three people in need of bone marrow transplants die waiting,' Papadopoulos said. THAI StemLife offers to preserve cord blood stem cells - in hermetically sealed refrigerated tanks - for exclusive use for the child, sibling or parent, at a price.

   'It is a lifelong insurance policy for the baby,' Papadopoulos claimed.

   Not every one in the Thai medical community agrees.

   'It's of no use,' said Dr Suradej Nongeng, a bone marrow specialist. 'If you've got leukemia, there is now evidence that you had the leukemia gene since you were born so its also in the cord blood.'

   Collection of cord blood stem cells by private companies started more than two decades ago in the US, where 20 states even passed legislation requiring hospitals to advise parents to keep their child's blood stem cells.

   But in February 2008, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) reversed their opinion on the private sector service.

   'Patients need to be aware that the chances are remote that the stem cells from their baby's banked cord blood will be used to treat that same child - or another family member - in the future,' said Anthony R Gregg, chairman of ACOG's Committee on Genetics, in a statement.

   Today the trend in the US and Europe is to encourage the development of public cord blood banks and public registry of volunteer donors of stem cells for bone marrow transplants.

   In Thailand, the Thai Red Cross Society has been building up a public cord blood bank and donor registry for the past six years, with limited success.

   To date the society has collected only 500 cord blood packages and has 35,000 potential donors signed up on its registry.

   'Our aim is to get 3,000 cord blood packages and 120,000 donors on the registry within the next five years,' Thai Society of Hematology president Tanin Intragumtornchai said.

   Although the society depends solely upon voluntary donations, it lacks sufficient budget to publicize its stem cell drive.

   The bigger the stem cell bank and registry the better. The great majority of bone marrow transplants use blood stem cells from a sibling, for which there is a 25-per-cent chance of a match.

   The chance of finding a match from a non-relative are about 1 in 50,000.

   The chief advantage of using one's own cord blood stem cells is that there is much less chance of tissue rejection.

   Private companies such as THAI StemLife are now telling clients they should store their babies' stem cells for treatment of other diseases such as cerebral palsy and diabetic ulcers.

   Although there has been one reported case of successfully using cord blood stem cells to threat an infant for cerebral palsy, the treatment remains scientifically questionable.

   'It may work but it's not the right time to say this is standard therapy,' said Suradej, who faults private sector stem cell banks for taking advantage of parents' ignorance and concerns for their child's health.

   'These wealthy people, instead of paying money for their own child's stem cells should donate they money to set up a bank for all babies in the future,' he said.