Transplantation of Human Allogenic Cord Blood Mononuclear Stem Cells in Autism: Safety and Efficacy of the Method
Transplantation of Human Allogenic Cord Blood Mononuclear Stem Cells in Autism: Safety and Efficacy of the Method
Purpose. The goals of the study are to assess the safety of the intravenous infusion of umbilical cord blood (UCB) cells in patients with autism and to confirm changes in social/ communicative skills and cognitive functioning after four infusions of ABO/Rh-matched UCB stem cells.
Material and methods. The sample comprises 30 patients (27 males, 3 females) aged between 3 and 11 years with ASD under the care of the National Medical Research Center for Psychiatry and Neurology (Saint-Petersburg, Russia). Participants are randomly assigned to either the control group (14 males, 1 female) or the experimental group (13 males, 2 females). The experimental group receives intravenous injections of UCB cells four times with a two-week gap between injections. The control group receives standard therapy.
The dynamic of cognitive functions and social/communicative skills assess with Checklist for autism spectrum disorders (CASD), Autism treatment evaluation checklist (ATEC), subscales of Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) - "Digit Span", "Picture completion", "Block design", "Coding".
Inclusion Criteria:
Exclusion Criteria: