Word: placentas
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...seek out telltale proteins that may indicate spina bifida, neural-tube defects or Down syndrome--or looking directly at the fetus with ultrasound scans. For women over 35, doctors usually recommend more invasive procedures in which actual fetal cells are gathered from the womb's amniotic fluid (amniocentesis) or placenta (chorionic villus sampling...
...children? What if, God forbid, your daughter developed leukemia and needed a bone-marrow transplant? What if neither you nor your spouse could offer a close enough match to donate marrow? If you'd had the foresight to preserve some critical blood cells found in the umbilical cord and placenta that nourished your other children in the womb, you might be able to save your daughter's life...
Cord blood, which is painlessly harvested after birth, seems to be an ideal solution. The placenta is teeming with the all-important stem cells that can generate a new immune system. Even better, these cells are, as doctors put it, "naive," making them less likely to attack their new host. As a result, a cord-blood transplant doesn't have to match a recipient quite so closely as a bone-marrow transplant. This experimental treatment could prove especially helpful to African-American patients and other minorities whose greater genetic diversity often means they have trouble finding a good bone-marrow...
...collection team, with exquisite delicacy, inserts a catheter into a vein in the cut cord, draining the precious blood while the placenta is still in place. Kyle is on the warming table, all 9 lbs. 7 oz. "That's no infant," the merry nurse says, "that's a toddler." Father Kevin scoops up his swaddled son and greets him, then lays him tenderly on his mother's chest. "Well, hidey-ho," she says...
...treatment is based on the belief that the placenta and umbilical cord are rich in powerfully therapeutic cells, called stem cells. Frequently discarded, the placenta and umbilical cord from a few new mothers, like Christina Crosby, are now being donated right in the delivery room...