In Utero Stem Cell Transplantation

Abstract

Technical advances in ultrasound have helped make possible an exciting new prenatal therapy for many inherited hematologic disorders: fetal stem cell transplantation. Under ultrasound guidance, pluripotential hematopoietic stem cells extracted from peimmune fetal donors can be injected into the marrow of fetuses diagnosed with an inherited hematologic disorder in utero. These stem cells from the healthy donor will then, in theory, differentiate and proliferate, replacing the defective cells. Recent experimental work in this area has yielded encouraging results. The lifting of the federal moratorium on research involving fetal tissue transplantation should bring about more rapid advances in the near future, and ultrasound will continue to play an important role in this new technique.

Keywords

in utero surgery hematopoiesis hematopoietic stem cells fetal stem cell transplantation

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