Ten-Year Follow-Up Outcomes of a Single Intravenous Infusion of Autologous Cord Blood Mononuclear Cells in Preterm Neonates

Stem cell therapies in preterm infants are rarely reported. Although preclinical and clinical research have demonstrated the beneficial effects of stem cells therapies in the prevention and treatment of preterm complications, the long-term outcomes of these treatments remain unknown. Accordingly, in this study, we investigated the long-term safety, growth, respiratory, and neurodevelopmental outcomes of preterm infants enrolled in our phase I safety study. Our data showed that cord blood mononuclear cell intravenous therapy in preterm infants was safe after long-term follow-up. These promising results provide an important first step toward the safe clinical translation of stem cell therapy for this unique population of preterm neonates. Funding Statement: This work was supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 81873847). Declaration of Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Ethics Approval Statement: This follow-up study protocol was approved by the institutional review board of the Guangdong Women and Children Hospital (approval no. 2018-01-065). Informed consent for this follow-up study was obtained from parents of each child after review with study staff.