Inm-7: Cord Blood Banking Potential and Prospective

The term “cord blood” is used for blood that is drawn from the umbilical cord and the placenta after a baby is born. Up until recently this afterbirth was discarded as medical waste. Cord blood contains stem cells that may be frozen for later use in medical therapies, such as stem cell transplantation or regenerative medicine. The umbilical cord and placenta are rich sources of stem cells. These are different from both the embryonic stem cells in a fertilized egg and any stem cells obtained from a child or adult person. The stem cells in cord blood can grow into blood and immune system cells, as well as other types of cells. Stem cells can transform into other types of cells in the body and create new growth and development; they are the building block of the immune system. This transformation of cells provides physicians with a way to treat leukemia and some inherited disorders. Cord blood stem cells have the same ability to treat disease as bone marrow does however, there is significantly less rejection. The cord blood collection process is simple, safe, and painless. It is usually completed in less than five minutes by health care provider. Cord blood collection does not interfere with delivery and is possible with vaginal or cesarean deliveries. Cord blood can either be donated for the public cord or stored privately for the family. Most parents who want to save the cord blood must choose between those two options, and must make the decision a few weeks before the birth. When you privately bank your baby’s cord blood stem cells, you have a stem cell unit that is a genetic match to your baby, should a doctor determine that a transplant with the stem cell unit should ever be needed. It may also be possible that the cord blood stem cells will be a suitable match for a family member who is a blood relative, including siblings, your spouse, or even yourself as determined by a doctor. Cord blood is an accepted source of stem cells for any of the diseases where stem cell transplants are a standard therapy. This covers a long list of oncology and hematology diagnoses. Cord blood transplants have been in use since 1988, and by the end of 2009 there had been about 20,000 cord blood transplants world-wide (1). Yet, it was not until late 2011 that the US FDA finally licensed cord blood transplants for most of the diseases on the standard therapy list. While the FDA licensure does not change clinical practices at transplant centers, it does open up access to cord blood transplants for those patients whose health insurance providers had previously used the lack of licensure as a reason not to cover the transplants. Emerging cell therapies is a catch-all phrase for any new applications of cord blood stem cells that are currently in clinical trials. Success stories from these trials have received a great deal of media attention. But not every patient is a success story, and until follow up studies against controls are completed, it is not clear what fraction of the patients benefited from the therapy and the measure of benefit they received.