Stem Cell Research - Banking Blood Cord - PLEASE HELP?

[lelumieredans]

I was just watching an amazing video about a little girl who was "cured" of her cerebral palsy using her own stored blood cord from birth<br />
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http//www.cordblood.com/azfamily1.asp.<br />
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My question is, if someone were to have a a syndrome, like Retts Sydrome for example where they had a mutation to a gene (in retts the MECP2 mutation) would this mutation also be in the blood cord that was stored - therefore making it a not good source<br />

 

[greengo]

YES
The cord blood contains the same DNA as the rest of the body. IF a mutated gene is present from birth, it would also be present in the stored cells from cord blood.

I should add mutated genes that cause a lack of a certain protein can be potentially "fixed" by transfection of a healthy gene that does work via a viral vector. This is called "gene therapy" and there are some success stories there. Gene therapy is different from stem cell therapy, and it has been around much longer.