Health Information

Cord blood is a human Blood present in the blood vessels at the time of delivery .The blood vessels contain pair of umbilical arteries and one umbilical vein. The blood between the foetus and placenta is carried by these blood vessels. The umbilical cord blood is rich in haematopoietic stem cells. The cord blood is collected after the umbilical cord has been removed from the newborn infants. The cord blood is used as a source for the stem cells transplantation.

Collection

The cord blood from the umbilical vein can be collected by two methods namely in utero or before placenta and ex utero or after placenta is delivered. The collection of cord blood before the delivery of the placenta is done by in utero collection method. The collection of cord blood after the delivery of the placenta is done by ex utero collection method and the umbilical cord is ligatured and cut from the newborn infants. The cord blood is collected up to 50 – 150 ml from the donor new parents. The additional stem cells can be collected from the placenta through placenta cord banking. The placenta is used in the additional stem cells in the stem cell laboratory. The collection of cord blood is stored in the liquid nitrogen medium for the later use.

How the cord blood is stored

The cord blood can be stored by both private and public cord blood banks. For donor and donor’s relatives the private cord banks is used. For the general public benefits the public cord bank is used. The most of the medical community supports the public cord blood banking. The private cord blood banking is recommended When the specific genetic diseases is seen in the family history. The cord blood stem cells are more matching than the stem cells from the bone marrow. The fathers and siblings have a 20% chance for the cord blood perfect match.

Costs

The new parents have the option for the storage of their newborn cord blood to the private cord blood bank or donating it to a public blood bank. The cost for the collection of a private cord blood bank is approximately. $ 25000.

Usage

The cryopreseved cord blood is injected through a vein of the patients. The collection of stem cells from another donor is known as allogeneic treatment. When the cells are collected from the same patients is known as autologous. The collection of cord blood from the identical individual is known as syngenic.

Diseases treated with cord blood

In early the cord blood stem cells are used to treat genetic diseases related to immune system and cancer. The cord blood is also used to cure acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The hematopoietic cells diseases can be prevented by peripheral and cord blood stem cells.