From Mansfield Center, Connecticut, USA

My 22 month old daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes five months ago, and I go back and forth between accepting the situation and then being highly motivated to find out what can be done. I have also just read some previous questions and answers about saving umbilical cords in case there will be a use for them in the future. I am four weeks pregnant and am wondering, if I miscarry is there any use of a miscarried baby to help my 22 month old? I do not mean to sound morbid, but of course, I think of everything, and l do not want to miss any possible opportunity.

I checked this morning with our stem cell expert just to be sure that I wasn’t missing some new development and the answer still is: although cord blood can be life saving for certain inherited aplastic anemias, the stem cells are not endodermal ones and cannot at the moment be developed into potential islet cells. This may not always be the case, but the advice I got was that it is not at the moment worth the cost to preserve cord tissue or cord blood as a potential remedy for type 1A (autoimmune) diabetes.

Having said this, you should know that there are some very interesting studies going on aimed at circumventing the two problems of islet cell transplantation that is the lack of donors and the need for life time immunosuppression. It may seem a long time away, but my guess is that success will be achieved before your daughter goes off to college.

DOB