Prof. Young-Ho Lee: autologous cord blood is helpful in treating children with cerebral palsy

Expert introduction

Prof. Young-Ho Lee (Figure 1) is a Professor of Department of Pediatrics, Hanyang University Medical Center. He earned his degree of MD and PhD at Hanyang University College of Medicine. He got postgraduate researcher course in the field of pediatric hematology and stem cell transplantation at the UCLA Medical Center. His major fields are pediatric hematology, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, and stem cell biology including stem cell homing. He performed the first successful cord blood transplantation (CBT) for child with relapsed acute leukemia at 1998 in Korea. Since then, he established infrastructures of CBT regarding banking guidelines for CB as well as clinical guideline for CBT. Furthermore, he performed the pioneering works for legislation for CB act in Korea. Recently, he has tried the application of mononuclear cells of CB and mobilized peripheral blood stem cells as cell therapeutics for refractory neurologic diseases.

Figure 1 Young-Ho Lee, MD, PhD. Professor, Hanyang University Medical Center, Seoul, Korea.

Editor’s note

The 6^th China Cord Blood Symposium was held during June 29^th, 2018 to July 1^st, 2018 in Guangzhou. During the meeting, we invited Prof. Young-Ho Lee from Korea to have an interview.

In the interview (Figure 2), Prof. Lee said that in South Korea, the incidence of cerebral palsy is not high, and only about one in 1,000 cases of childbirth suffers from cerebral palsy. Currently, supportive care is the main treatment for cerebral palsy, including physical therapy.

Figure 2 Professor Young-Ho Lee: autologous cord blood is helpful in treating children with cerebral palsy (1). Available online: http://www.asvide.com/article/view/26461

When it comes to the treatment of cerebral palsy with autologous cord blood, Prof. Lee pointed out that cord blood has a nerve regeneration effect. The use of cord blood helps them improves their nerves. Prof. Lee gave us a brief introduction to a previous study. His team used cord blood cell therapy for cerebral palsy patients, and about 25% of patients have responded to autologous cord blood transfusions. Therefore, we can expect more clinical experience, which increases the clinical outcome of cord blood cell therapy for patients with cerebral palsy.

In order to improve the further development of patients with cerebral palsy by using cord blood, Prof. Lee hopes to study the method of cord blood treatment of cerebral palsy in the future, so that this treatment method can bring better therapeutic effects to more children with cerebral palsy. He believes that cord blood will be very beneficial for the treatment of children with cerebral palsy.

Interview questions

• What is the incidence of cerebral palsy?
• What are the treatments for cerebral palsy?
• Compared to other treatments, what are the advantages of adopting “autologous cord blood reinfusion” in treating cerebral palsy?
• Is there any improvement for autologous cord blood to treat cerebral palsy?
• What do you think of the future development of treating cerebral palsy by adopting autologous cord blood in Korea?

Acknowledgments

Funding: None.

Footnote

Provenance and Peer Review: This article was commissioned by the editorial office, Annals of Blood for the series “Meet the Professor”. The article did not undergo external peer review.

Conflicts of Interest: The author has completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at http://dx.doi.org/10.21037/aob.2018.08.02). The series “Meet the Professor” was commissioned by the editorial office without any funding or sponsorship. Constance Tang reports that she is a full-time employee of AME Publishing Company. The author has no other conflicts of interest to declare.

Ethical Statement: The author is accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

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References

1. Tang C. Professor Young-Ho Lee: autologous cord blood is helpful in treating children with cerebral palsy. Asvide 2018;5:688. Available online: http://www.asvide.com/article/view/26461

(Science Editor: Constance Tang, AOB, aob@amegroups.com)