Safety of Autologous Human Umbilical Cord Blood for Sensorineural Hearing Loss in Children, A Phase I Trial

Background: Moderate to severe acquired sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) in children is associated with substantial long term neurocognitive morbidity. The underlying cause of SNHL is loss of hair cells in the Organ of Corti. Currently, there are no successful neuro-reparative treatments for SNHL. Numerous pre-clinical studies suggest that cord blood derived mononuclear cells (hUCBC), cells derived from hUCBC, or similar cells derived from bone marrow allow at least partial restoration of SNHL by enabling …