The First Experience of Application the Umbilical Cord-Derived Human Autologous Mesenchymal Stromal Cells for the Rehabilitation Therapy of Premature Infants with Extremely Low Body Weight and Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy.

Two clinical cases of the use of cell therapy with umbilical cord-derived autologous mesenchymal stromal cells in the rehabilitation therapy of extremely premature newborns (27-28 weeks gestation, body weights 900 and 870 g, respectively) with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy are described. The girls were born by caesarean section; the 1-min Apgar score was 6 points. After resuscitation including artificial ventilation, stabilization of the condition was achieved against the background of the development of hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. Rehabilitation therapy included administration of umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stromal cells harvested at birth. The cells were injected in a dose of 1.6-7 million/kg body weight at the age of 3, 6, 12 months (the first patient) and 3, 6, 9, 15 months (the second patient). Psychoneurological developmental delay was scored using the Hellbrügge scale. Cell therapy induced no significant adverse reactions and improved the psychomotor development of children.