Awareness on the medical benefits of stem cells was organized by Life Cell, to promote the usages at a symposium held at Hotel ACACIA Dimapur Wednesday.
A paper presented by Brig. (Dr) Paramjit Dhot, medical director LifeCell international Pvt Ltd, Manesar Gurgaon, emphasized on cord blood stem cells and new born screening.
Stem cells have the ability to divide for indefinite periods in culture and to give rise to specialised cells and are best described in the context of normal human development.
Dr. Dhot asserted the advantages of Chord blood stem cell were that it was easily available and it was a non-invasive collection procedure, which was better tolerated across human leukocyte antigen (HLA) barrier and has a lower frequency of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection. Pointing out that over 30,000 cord blood transplants have been done globally, he said clinical phase II trials were ongoing for a number of diseases that would soon result into stem cell therapy in the clinics.
LifeCell international, India’s first and most accredited private cord blood bank with over 150 collection centres in India and abroad stores over 1,27, 000 cord blood units. It is the only cord blood bank in the world with a dual storage facility would be at Chennai and Manesar.
Dr. Dhot said nearest to Northeast (Nagaland) would be Tata memorial hospital, Kolkata. Dr Dhot said that charges of transplant in India are lesser than US or European countries.
Stressing on newborn screening, Dr. Dhot said the purpose was to enable early detection of pre-symptomatic babies, to enable early treatment to improve health, to reduce anxiety caused by uncertainty over symptoms before clinical diagnosis was made.
Newborn screening could be done through technology was based on gas chromatography and mass spectrometry, no need for heel prick, test could be performed using urine samples collected after 48 hours of birth and cord blood.
A workshop on awareness on stem banking was also organized for all the doctors of Dimapur and Kohima. For any reference, LifeCell international local office is at Faith hospital Dimapur.
Stem cells are undifferentiated biological cells that can differentiate into specialized cells and can divide (through mitosis) to produce more stem cells. They are found in multicellular organisms. In mammals, there are two broad types of stem cells: embryonic stem cells, which are isolated from the inner cell mass of blastocysts, and adult stem cells, which are found in various tissues.
In adult organisms, stem cells and progenitor cells act as a repair system for the body, replenishing adult tissues. In a developing embryo, stem cells can differentiate into all the specialized cells-ectoderm, endoderm and mesoderm (see induced pluripotent stem cells)-but also maintain the normal turnover of regenerative organs, such as blood, skin, or intestinal tissues.
Friday, April 24, 2026