Immune thrombocytopenia is an autoimmune disease that causes
a low platelet count in which antibodies bind with the antigens of the
platelets in the blood. While this
disorder in of itself would not cause death, complication caused by it could
lead to death. This would normally be
treated with Immunosuppression drugs, but a study conducted by the department
of hematology in the Siping hospital of china might have another option. This new treatment involved an intravenous
infusion of mesenchymal stem cells derived from the umbilical cords from
infants and mixed with saline infusion to insure delivery. The treatment was implemented to 4 different
patients and the time for a treatment response was about two weeks. The stem cells were able to treat the
disorder and for one patient, there was no signs of relapsed. For the remaining 3 patients, there were
signs of relapse within a 12 month period.
The patients that did relapse were given a second round of the treatment
and they remained symptom free for more than ten months. This article concluded that this could be a possible
treatment for Immune thrombocytopenia, but more research would be needed for a
large scale therapy.
Figure 1: A chart explaining how the treatment affected the patients.
Article Citation: Xiaouh, w., Xiaoguang, y., Wei, S., Jin, B., yawen S., Qiang, A. (2017). Intravenous infusion umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cell in primary immune thrombocytopenia: a two year follow-up. Experimental & Therapeutic medicin, 13(5), 2255-2258.
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