What is cord blood?
Cord blood is the blood in your baby’s umbilical cord. It contains stem cells that can grow into blood vessels, organs, and tissues.
Cord blood stem cells are the subject of FDA-regulated clinical trials exploring their suitability for helping those with autism, brain injury, and other conditions. These specialized cells are already used to treat dozens of diseases.
Your baby’s cord blood can be collected at birth and stored for future use.
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What is cord blood banking?
Cord blood banking involves collecting blood left in your newborn’s umbilical cord and placenta and storing it for future medical use. Cord blood contains potentially lifesaving cells called stem cells. (The stem cells in cord blood are different from embryonic stem cells.)
For cord blood storage, you have two main options:
- You can donate your baby’s cord blood to a public cord blood bank for anyone who needs it.
- You can pay to store your baby’s cord blood in a private cord blood bank for your family’s use.
What are the benefits of cord blood banking?
Cord blood is a rich source of blood stem cells. Stem cells are the building blocks of the blood and immune system. They have the ability to develop into other types of cells, so they can help repair tissues, organs, and blood vessels and can be used to treat a host of diseases.
Stem cells are also found in bone marrow, human embryos, fetal tissue, hair follicles, baby teeth, fat, circulating blood, and muscle. Every part of the human body contains some stem cells, but most are not a rich enough source to be harvested for therapeutic applications.
In patients with conditions like leukemia, for instance, chemotherapy is often used to rid their body of diseased cells so that normal blood cell production can be restored. Once that happens, the disease goes into remission.
If the treatment fails or disease recurs, however, doctors often do a stem cell transplant. A transfusion of stem cells from the bone marrow, peripheral blood (blood in the bloodstream), or cord blood from a healthy donor can help create a new blood and immune system, giving the patient a better chance of making a full recovery.
Unlike the stem cells in bone marrow or peripheral blood, stem cells in cord blood are immature and haven’t yet learned how to attack foreign substances. It’s easier to match transplant patients with cord blood than with other sources of stem cells because the cord blood stem cells are less likely to reject the transfusion.
This makes cord blood an even more valuable resource for ethnic minorities, who have a harder time finding stem cell matches in the registry of adult bone marrow donors. In 2015, 28 percent of patients who identify as Hispanic and 33 percent of patients who identify as African American undergoing stem cell transplants received cord blood.
Source video Save the Cord Foundation
What else is cord blood used for?
Studies are under way around the world to explore new ways of using cord blood.
Cerebral palsy and autism
Children in clinical trials are being treated with their own cord blood for cerebral palsy, a condition that affects about 1 in 300 children in the United States. Children in clinical trials are also being treated with their own cord blood for autism, a condition that affects 1 in 68 children..
Hydrocephalus, type 1 diabetes, and more
Babies and young children in the United States are also being reinfused with their own cord blood stem cells in clinical trials to develop therapies for hydrocephalus (fluid in the brain), oxygen deprivation at birth, traumatic brain injury, type 1 (juvenile) diabetes, and congenital heart defects that require surgery.
If the clinical trials are successful, these therapies may become commonly available within a few years.
Treatments for adults
Researchers believe that adult cancer patients may one day benefit from treatment from their own cord blood stem cells that were collected at birth. The hope is that stem cells will be useful for treating cancers that aren’t genetically based.
Much of the promising stem cell research in adults that uses stem cells from bone marrow may one day use stem cells from cord blood. Current studies registered with the U.S. federal database are treating people with conditions as varied as diabetes, spinal cord injuries, heart failure, stroke, and neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis.
Animal studies
Scientists at the University of South Florida’s Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair found that cord blood stem cells helped rats with stroke and spinal cord injuries recover some motor function and helped mice programmed to develop Lou Gehrig’s disease develop symptoms more slowly and survive longer. The center is looking at cord blood treatments for diseases like Alzheimer’s and cerebral palsy as well.
“Most of these studies have been performed on animals, but the results have been very encouraging,” says Paul Sanberg, executive director of the Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair and vice-chair of the Department of Neurosurgery and Brain Repair at the University of South Florida.
But many experts urge parents to view such studies (especially those conducted on animals) cautiously. It’s difficult to predict when, if ever, these treatments will become available for people.
Cautious optimism
“Breakthroughs occur daily,” says Laura Riley, an obstetrician at Massachusetts General Hospital, “but most people are overly optimistic about the amount of progress thus far.” Still, scientists are hopeful that someday adult patients will routinely be able to receive cell therapies based on cord blood stem cells.
Source Video Core23 Biobank
Should We Store Our Newborn’s Cord Blood?
Umbilical cord blood has been used successfully to treat a number of genetic, blood, and cancer conditions in children such as leukemia and immune disorders. Some parents are choosing to store their baby’s cord blood for possible future use. However, there are no accurate statistics on the likelihood of children someday needing their own stored cells.
In response, the American Academy of Pediatrics discourages storing cord blood at private banks for later personal or family use as a general “insurance policy.” Rather, they encourage families to donate their newborn’s cord blood, which is normally discarded at birth, to cord blood banks (if accessible in their area) for other individuals in need. (You should be aware, though, that your baby’s cord blood would not be available as a stem cell source if your child developed leukemia later in life.)
Storing your child’s cord blood is certainly an issue that you should discuss with your obstetrician and/or pediatrician before your baby is born, not during the emotionally stressful time of delivery. She may refer you to cord blood banks in your community. You will need to register ahead of time so that the appropriate collection kit can be sent to you or your obstetrician to be used at your delivery.
Source Video bossonie
Public Versus Private Umbilical Cord Blood Banking
Two types of banks have emerged for the collection and storage of umbilical cord blood: 1) public banks and 2) private banks. The first public bank was established at the New York Blood Center in 1991 and other public banks have since been established in various regions of the country. In December 2005, federal legislation, the C.W. Bill Young Cell Transplantation Act, was enacted that provides funding for continued growth of a national umbilical cord blood registry in the United States. Some states have passed legislation requiring physicians to inform their patients about umbilical cord blood banking options. Obstetrician–gynecologists and other obstetric care providers should consult their state medical associations for more information regarding state laws.
Public banks promote allogeneic (related or unrelated) donation, analogous to the current collection of whole blood units in the United States. These banks typically are associated with a local network of obstetric hospitals that send their units of blood to a central processing facility. A minority of public banks will accept units through shipment by an overnight express courier. A list of participating hospitals is maintained by the National Marrow Donor Program. Public banks are supported through government grants, private donations, and compensation for cord blood units used for transplant. Units of umbilical cord blood collected for public banks must meet rigorous standards of donor screening and infectious disease testing as outlined by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. As of October 20, 2011, every unrelated donor cord blood unit to be transplanted in the United States must be either licensed or covered under an investigational new drug application approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Initial human leukocyte antigen typing of these units allows them to be entered into computerized registries so that when the need arises, a specific unit can be rapidly located for a patient.
Private for-profit banks were initially developed to store stem cells from umbilical cord blood for autologous use (taken from an individual for subsequent use by the same individual) if the child develops disease later in life or for use by other family members. Private banks advertise directly to consumers often encouraging parents to bank their infants’ cord blood as a form of “biological insurance.” The routine storage of umbilical cord blood as biological insurance against future disease is not recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics, given the lack of scientific data to support its use and availability of allogeneic transplantation. Physicians or other professionals who recruit pregnant women and their families for for-profit umbilical cord blood banking should disclose any financial interests or other potential conflicts of interest.
Source Video Core23 Biobank
