by BabyCenter Featured Expert posted in Parenting

By Kate Girard, R.N. MSN, Director of Medical and Scientific Affairs, ViaCord
April is Autism Awareness month -- a month dedicated to creating awareness and understanding of this complex disorder that affects so many families. This April also marks a special time for autism research efforts.

Earlier this month, researchers at Duke University Medical Center published the results of a Phase I Autism and Cord Blood Clinical Trial.1 As with any FDA-approved clinical trial, the first phase is to determine safety. So the goal of the trial was to determine the safety of giving a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder their own cord blood stem cells.
Results showed that using a child?s own cord blood in children with ASD is safe. Researchers also described improvements in behavior observed in the first 6 months post-infusion and sustained at 12 months.2 Read full results here So what?s next"
Phase II is already underway to help determine if a child?s own or unrelated donor cord blood stem cells is beneficial to children with ASD ? based on established primary and secondary outcome measures.3 For more details about this study, click here.
This research has elicited new hopes for the potential uses of cord blood stem cells. Cord blood stem cells have been proven in transplant medicine for nearly 30 years. About a decade ago, researchers began to experiment with cord blood in a new way -- for its potential usefulness in an area...