Pediatric Nursing and Healthcare

Neonatal Stem Cell Transplantation

There are substantial advances in baby treatment over the past two decades that have resulted within the exaggerated survival of terribly low birth weight infants, survival that in some centers extends to 22 weeks gestational age. Despite these advances, there continues to be significant morbidity associated with extreme preterm birth that includes both short-term and long-term pulmonary and neurologic consequences. No single medical care has evidenced to be effective in preventing or treating either organic process respiratory organ and brain injuries in preterm infants or the hypoxic-ischemic injury that may be inflicted on the full-term  brain as a results of in utero or perinatal complications. Stem cell–based therapies ar rising as a possible paradigm-shifting approach for such complicated diseases with complex etiologies, but a great deal of work is still required to understand the role of stem/progenitor cells in traditional development and within the repair of burned tissue.