Safety and Feasibility of Umbilical Cord Blood Cell Transplant Into Injured Spinal Cord: an Open-Labeled, Dose-Escalating Clinical Tiral

This is an open-label, dose-escalating clinical trial. Three groups of four patients will receive transplants of increasing doses of HLA-matched umbilical cord blood mononuclear cell into the spinal cord. In the fourth group, we will transplant the highest volume of cells that did not increase neurological deficits along with a single bolus of 30mg/kg methylprednisolone sodium succinate. In the fifth group of four subjects, we will inject that volume of cells plus a bolus intravenous dose of 30mg/kg methylprednisolone sodium succinate and a 6-week course of oral lithium carbonate titrated to 0.6-1.0 mM serum levels. All the subjects are encouraged to stand or walk for one hour a day after the cell transplantation.

The neurological and walking outcomes will be assessed 1, 2, 6, 24 and 48 weeks after transplantation. The outcomes of the five treatment groups will be compared by analysis of variance and, if possible, correlation with cell dose. Efficacy and safety will be analyzed comparing neurological change scores amongst the five different treatment groups. Loss of motor (>5 points) or sensor scores (>2 points) from baseline pre-treatment levels would be considered deleterious. Increases in scores above baseline would be considered beneficial.