I t is our anticipation and hope that stem cells will cure type 1 diabetes someday because of their limitless capacity to differentiate as needed into the vital tissue or organ. In theory, pluripotent cells have the capacity to reprogram a hostile immune response to tolerate pancreatic -cells and to regenerate pancreatic -cell mass. These two factors are the necessary ingredients for reversing ...

Umbilical cord tissue was obtained from 50 births in the Faroe Islands, where high mercury intake is due to ingestion of pilot whale meat. The mercury concentration correlated significantly with the frequency of maternal whale meat dinners during pregnancy and with mercury concentrations in umbilical cord blood and in maternal hair. The results were compared with published values for mercury in...

OBJECTIVES The best umbilical cord care after birth is a controversial issue. Aim of this research was to compare the effect of topical application of human milk and chlorhexidin on cord separation time in newborns. METHODS One hundred seventy four neonates attending from hospitals affiliated to Kashan University of Medical Sciences were included. Newborns from birth were randomized to two gr...

BACKGROUND Neonatal sepsis is the third leading cause of deaths for infants in their first month of life. The newly cut umbilical cord can be a pathway for bacteria that can cause newborn sepsis and death. Optimal umbilical cord care practices for newborns and during the first week of life, especially in settings with poor hygiene, has the potential to avoid these preventable neonatal deaths. T...

Background: Antenatal steroid therapy recently has been considered for term and late preterm neonates delivered by Cesarean section (CS), with the aim of preventing adverse respiratory morbidity. The main aim of this study was to investigate the metabolic effects of antenatal dexamethasone on blood glucose (BG), homeostasis, and serum C-peptide level when administered to term fetuses. Methods: ...

Introduction: Iron plays an important role in myelination. Ferritin is a reliable indicator of the tissue iron store and umbilical cord ferritin level reflects the in utero iron stores. Objective is to study the effect of the umbilical cord ferritin level on the ABR recording in the newborn.   Materials and Methods: The study was conducted in a ...

Pre-eclampsia, the most common pregnancy associated syndrome, is connected with remodelling of extracellular matrix of the umbilical cord tissues. Since the fibroblast growth factor (FGF) is known to be a stimulator of collagen and glycosaminoglycan biosynthesis, one may expect that it plays an important role in such a remodelling. Studies performed on the umbilical cords of 10 control and 10 p...

The extracellular matrix components are differentially distributed among various structures of the umbilical cord. Wharton's jelly is especially rich in collagens and growth factors. Cathepsin B is a major cysteine protease involved in collagen degradation, as well as in the activation of precursor forms of other collagenolytic enzymes and growth factors. We assessed the activity and expression...

The aim of the study was to investigate the possibility of human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (UC-MSCs) surviving and differentiating into hepatocyte-like cells in partially hepatectomized model rats. MSCs were isolated from human umbilical cord and cultured with collagenase digestion. Cell surface markers were detected and fifth generation UC-MSCs were labeled with PKH26. The partiall...