Stem Cells From Cord Blood May Offer Way to Treat Sick Child

FAITH LAPIDUS: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus.
CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: And I’m Christopher Cruise. Today, we will tell about possible hope for children suffering from damage to their nervous system. We will also tell about a warning from the head of the World Health Organization. And we will tell about a science competition for young people.
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FAITH LAPIDUS: Researchers are testing stem cells from children to treat health problems they possess because of damage to the body’s nervous system. The stem cells were recovered when the children were born. The researchers hope to learn if the cells can improve the quality of life for these boys and girls.
An American study showed that children can safely receive their own cord blood stem cells. The study was completed at the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. The cells came from blood in umbilical cords. Umbilical cords connect babies to their mothers during pregnancy¹. Collection of the cells is done at birth and is painless.
Dr. Joanne Kurtzberg is director of the Pediatric Bone Marrow² and Stem Cell Transplant Program at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina
A baby’s umbilical cord traditionally has been thrown away as medical waste. But saving the stem cells from blood in the cord has become more common in recent years. Most parents who do this have healthy babies. They want the cells kept should the child later suffer an accident or health problem.
CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Studies have shown that stem cells can divide continually and become other kinds of cells or tissue. They may move to destroyed cells and take control of their duties. The result may help basic abilities like seeing, hearing, and walking in children with nervous system damage.
Joanne Kurtzberg is chief of the Blood and Marrow Transplantation Center at the Duke University Medical Center. Dr. Kurtzberg has been studying stem cells for about thirty years. She and her team investigated whether cord blood stem cells can help patients -- and which patients they help.
A dish for growing stem cells at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha
FAITH LAPIDUS: Patients from all over the world travel to North Carolina to take part in Duke University studies. Doctor Kurtzberg and her team have been studying babies suffering from the effects of hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy. The word hypoxic means reduced oxygen for, in this case, the body’s cells and organs. Ischemic means not enough blood reaches the organs. Encephalopathy describes problems with the workings of the brain. Severe HIE can prevent normal development.
Another study at Duke is accepting young children who have what is called spastic cerebral³ palsy. The patients are between the ages of one to six years. Experts debate how to define cerebral palsy. The condition can result from injury to the developing brain.
CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Bleeding in the brain, stroke or HIE can cause the injury. The baby can be injured while still in the mother’s uterus, at birth or later.
Severe cases limit muscle operation and body movement. Normal breathing and eating can be affected⁴. So can talking, seeing, hearing, walking and learning.
Trained therapists may be able to help reduce a child’s physical or mental limitations. But there is no cure at this time. And the emotional and financial costs of caring for a severely⁵ affected child can be huge. Still, current scientific work may offer hope.
FAITH LAPIDUS: The Duke study with child cerebral palsy patients is a clinical test. Young patients from anywhere in the world may take part if they meet the study’s medical requirements.
All the patients will receive cord blood stem cells, but at differing times. The children will also receive placebos⁶ -- harmless substances that cannot help. Placebos are used to make sure the stem cells are not mistakenly believed to be helping⁷ when other reasons are responsible.
All the patients will be repeatedly measured for progress at set times. Doctor Kurtzberg says these measurements will give carefully structured answers as to whether the treatment is helping their conditions.
CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Some families involved in her earlier research reported progress in their children after they received their own stem cells. For example, Sasha Browne is a pre-school British girl who lives with her family in Dubai. Her father, Richard, works for a British building company.
He and her mother, Tania, paid to store stem cells from Sasha’s umbilical cord blood when the little girl was born. Tania Browne said they did this, in her words, just in case. They remembered the stored cells when Sasha began to have health problems.
Sasha received her stem cells through an infusion⁸ more than a year ago. During an infusion, stem cells enter the body through a vein⁹ leading back to the heart. No operation is involved.
FAITH LAPIDUS: Tania Browne believes her daughter shows great improvement since receiving the cells. Missus Browne reports that therapists helping Sasha say she now walks much better. And a doctor planning to correct the little girl’s eye problems delayed the operation. The doctor had said Sasha might no longer need it.
Doctor Kurtzberg and her team have also observed improvement in their patients. But she says it must be shown scientifically that cord blood stem cells cause improvement, and not other reasons.
Researchers at the Medical College of Georgia in the United States are also working to learn if stem cells can help children with cerebral palsy. Doctor James Carroll leads the Georgia research team. He heads the first-ever clinical trial of umbilical cord stem cells with cerebral palsy patients.
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CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: The World Health Organization says it has reached a limit in its fight against diseases and disasters. Director-General Margaret Chan says the agency is "overextended" and faces, in her words, serious funding shortfalls. Dr. Chan says the WHO is no longer operating at the level of top performance that is increasingly needed, and expected.
She told the agency's Executive Board last month that the level of action should not be governed by the size of a problem. Instead, it should be governed by the extent to which the WHO can have an effect on the problem.
FAITH LAPIDUS: Dr. Chan said one of the most exciting developments recently is a new vaccine¹⁰ that could end Africa's deadly meningitis epidemics¹¹. She said no large drug company wanted to develop the vaccine because it would not bring big profits. So a group of researchers developed it with major support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The WHO chief warned that a shortage of money could limit progress in other areas. She said public health has been on what she called "a winning streak¹²." She noted¹³ the meningitis vaccine, new vaccines¹⁴ for preventing diarrheal disease and pneumonia¹⁵, and a new test for tuberculosis¹⁶. But she questioned whether there are enough resources to support, if not speed up, these gains.
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CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Most science and engineering contests for young people take place in a big room, with all the competitors present. But the Google Science Fair is a non-traditional competition. Students do not have to travel anywhere to enter. They can use the Internet to present their projects from anywhere in the world.
Public and private school students ages thirteen through eighteen can take part in the contest. They may enter projects in physics, biology and other subjects. Or they can demonstrate inventions. The entries are to be built and then presented to judges through the Internet.
FAITH LAPIDUS: The inventor of the Segway electric human transporter, Dean Kamen, is a judge at the Google Science Fair. He says it is easy to take part in the competition.
DEAN KAMEN:“All you need to participate is access to the Internet and imagination.”
FAITH LAPIDUS: Competitors have until April fourth to register for the contest. Judges will announce top winners and experiments in several age groups on July eleventh.
Mr. Kamen says the winners will receive some exciting prizes. Among them, there is a ten-day trip to the Galapagos Islands. Another is a visit to the CERN High Energy Laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland.
CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Google will give one hundred thousand dollars in financial aid for education. The company will also organize internships, which are periods of study and work with professionals in top entrants’ fields of interest.
Students interested in the Google Science Fair should go to google dot com slash¹⁷ science fair. It tells how to register. Again, that address is google dot com slash sciencefair, with sciencefair written as one word.
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FAITH LAPIDUS: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jerilyn Watson. Our producer was June Simms. I’m Faith Lapidus.
CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: And I’m Christopher Cruise. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

1 pregnancy   

n.怀孕，怀孕期

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
• Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。

2 marrow   

n.骨髓；精华；活力

参考例句：

• It was so cold that he felt frozen to the marrow. 天气太冷了，他感到寒冷刺骨。
• He was tired to the marrow of his bones.他真是累得筋疲力尽了。

3 cerebral   

adj.脑的，大脑的；有智力的，理智型的

参考例句：

• Your left cerebral hemisphere controls the right-hand side of your body.你的左半脑控制身体的右半身。
• He is a precise,methodical,cerebral man who carefully chooses his words.他是一个一丝不苟、有条理和理智的人，措辞谨慎。

4 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

5 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

6 placebos   

n.（给无实际治疗需要者的）安慰剂( placebo的名词复数 )；安慰物；宽心话；（试验药物用的）无效对照剂

参考例句：

• But, eventually, I think they were just kind of like placebos. 但是后来，我想它们只是安慰剂（安慰剂：没有任何药效的药） 来自电影对白
• But comparable numbers of those who received placebos also improved. 但是吃安慰剂的人的病情也改善了。 来自互联网

7 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

8 infusion   

n.灌输

参考例句：

• Old families need an infusion of new blood from time to time.古老的家族需要不时地注入新鲜血液。
• Careful observation of the infusion site is necessary.必须仔细观察输液部位。

9 vein   

n.血管，静脉；叶脉，纹理；情绪；vt.使成脉络

参考例句：

• The girl is not in the vein for singing today.那女孩今天没有心情唱歌。
• The doctor injects glucose into the patient's vein.医生把葡萄糖注射入病人的静脉。

10 vaccine   

n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的

参考例句：

• The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives.脊髓灰质炎疫苗挽救了数以百万计的生命。
• She takes a vaccine against influenza every fall.她每年秋季接种流感疫苗。

11 epidemics   

n．流行病

参考例句：

• Reliance upon natural epidemics may be both time-consuming and misleading. 依靠天然的流行既浪费时间，又会引入歧途。
• The antibiotic epidemics usually start stop when the summer rainy season begins. 传染病通常会在夏天的雨季停止传播。

12 streak   

n.条理，斑纹，倾向，少许，痕迹；v.加条纹，变成条纹，奔驰，快速移动

参考例句：

• The Indians used to streak their faces with paint.印第安人过去常用颜料在脸上涂条纹。
• Why did you streak the tree?你为什么在树上刻条纹？

13 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

14 vaccines   

疫苗，痘苗( vaccine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His team are at the forefront of scientific research into vaccines. 他的小组处于疫苗科研的最前沿。
• The vaccines were kept cool in refrigerators. 疫苗放在冰箱中冷藏。

15 pneumonia   

n.肺炎

参考例句：

• Cage was struck with pneumonia in her youth.凯奇年轻时得过肺炎。
• Pneumonia carried him off last week.肺炎上星期夺去了他的生命。

16 tuberculosis   

n.结核病，肺结核

参考例句：

• People used to go to special health spring to recover from tuberculosis.人们常去温泉疗养胜地治疗肺结核。
• Tuberculosis is a curable disease.肺结核是一种可治愈的病。

17 slash   

vi.大幅度削减；vt.猛砍，尖锐抨击，大幅减少；n.猛砍，斜线，长切口，衣衩

参考例句：

• The shop plans to slash fur prices after Spring Festival.该店计划在春节之后把皮货降价。
• Don't slash your horse in that cruel way.不要那样残忍地鞭打你的马。