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Umbilical Cord Blood Banking
Posted on: 03/26/2010
What is umbilical cord blood banking?
Blood from a newborn's umbilical cord, once considered a waste product that was routinely discarded along with the placenta, is now considered to contain potentially life-saving stem cells, including hematopoietic cells (blood forming), which can be used to treat some hematopoietic and genetic disorders. The use of cord blood stem cells in treating conditions such as brain injury (strokes), cardiovascular disease (heart attacks) and diabetes is currently being studied in humans.
Private banks were initially developed to store cord blood stem cells from newborns, for a fee, for potential future use by the same child or a family member if he/she developed disease later in life. Today, there are public banks that store, for free, stem cells that can be used by anyone needing them similar to how public blood banks work.
What are Stem Cells?
Most cells can make copies only of themselves. A skin cell can make another skin cell, for example. Stem cells are like blank slates. They can mature into different kinds of cells. The blood-forming stem cells found in cord blood make new blood cells to replace old ones in the body.
How Are Cord Blood Stem Cells Used?
Blood–forming stem cells in cord blood can be used to treat some types of illnesses, such as disorders of the blood, immune system, and metabolism. They also are used to offset the effects that cancer treatments have on the immune system. Other uses are being studied.
Stem cells occur in places other than cord blood. They are found in blood and bone marrow in adults and children. Using cord blood to treat disease has some benefits over using bone marrow. For example, it is harder to collect bone marrow than it is to collect cord blood. Collecting bone marrow poses some risks and can be painful for the donor.
What Are the Limits to Stem Cell Use?
Stem cells are not a “miracle cure.” Only a few diseases can be treated with stem cells. There also are other limitations:
If a baby is born with a genetic disease, the stem cells from the cord blood cannot be used for treatment because they will have the same genes that cause the disorder.
A child’s stem cells cannot be used to treat that child’s leukemia, a cancer of the blood. However, stem cells from a healthy child can be used like any other donated organ to treat another child’s leukemia. Careful matching of the recipient and donor are done to make sure that the stem cells will work.
Public Cord Blood Banks
Public cord blood banks operate like blood banks. Cord blood is collected for later use by anyone who needs it. The stem cells in the donated cord blood can be used by any person who “matches.” The cord blood is tracked in a national cord blood database so that a unit can be found quickly when needed. Public cord blood banks store cord blood for the benefit of the general public. Public banks do not charge to collect cord blood. The National Marrow Donor Program (www.marrow.org) is a network that has a list of public banks. Potential recipients are qualified, tested and placed on a waiting list for donors with matching cell types. Waiting time varies from 6 to 18 months depending on the prevalence of the recipient's genetic characteristics. Minorities are not well represented in the donor pool and have only a 10% chance of finding matching cells.
Private Cord Blood Banks
Private banks store cord blood for “directed donation.” The blood is held for personal use in treating your baby or relatives. Private banks most often charge a yearly fee for storage. There also will be a fee for collecting the cord blood.
How Is Cord Blood Collected?
After your baby is born and the umbilical cord is cut, the obstetrician collects the residual blood in the cord in a sterile bag. Sometimes, not enough cord blood can be collected. This problem can occur if the baby is premature or if there is more than one baby and they share a placenta. It also can occur for no reason. If an emergency occurs during delivery, it may not be possible to collect cord blood.
There are some points to think about when making your choice:
Many diseases cannot be treated with a person’s own stem cells.
The chance that cord blood stem cells will be needed to treat your child or a relative is very low—about 1 in 2,700. However, research is being done into new uses for stem cells. Research also may uncover new ways of treating disease that do not involve stem cells.
Currently, it is not known how long cord blood can successfully be stored.
In summary:
Donate it to for public use….
Recommended by American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
A local Boca Raton company can arrange for your baby’s stem cells to be donated for public use. For more information you can call AssureImmune directly at 561-750-6030 or toll free at 888-346-6863. You can also call the National Marrow Donor Program at 800-627-7692 or www.marrow.org/donatecord for a list of cord blood banks accepting donations.
Store it for private use because the baby’s parent or sibling has a disease that can be treated by a cord blood transplant…
Recommended by American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Call Children’s Hospital Oakland Sibling Donor Cord Blood Program (CHORI) at 510-450-7600 or the National Marrow Donor Program (see above) for more information
Store it for private use in the future, in case a need arises…
NOT recommended by American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Contact a private cord blood bank. A list of private banks can be found online at http://parentsguidecordblood.org
