Great Advantages Of Storing Cord Blood
Umbilical cord blood used to be considered as a biological waste but now it is used as a source of stems cells. It is collected from the placenta through the umbilical cord shortly after birth and is frozen at -150 C using liquid Nitrogen for future use. It can be used in applications where other types of hematopoietic stem cells or hematopoietic progenator cells (HSCs/HPCs) are used. They are found in bone marrow and peripheral blood, and are used.
HPCs can be transplanted to a patient to stimulate the immune system for the treatment of Leukemia or non-malignant immune deficiencies. Other conditions such as severe aplastic anemia and congenital sickle cell anemia can also benefit from this treatment.
If a child has their own stem cells available, and ever needs them, there would be no risk of graft-versus-host disease. Others advantages of these hematopoietic stems cells (HSCs) over those from bone marrow or peripheral blood are that they tend to be less mature, so fewer cells are required for the treatment. The requirements for a match are also reduced as these HSCs can be suitable to a greater number of patients.
There are two different types of blood bank. Private banks will store a persons stem cells for their own personal use later on. Public banks will only store a donated sample and it would then be available to any patient that is a match. A minimum quantity is required for an adult transplant to be successful so if the volume does not meet the requirement, then the donation has to be rejected. Read more