cord blood banking info

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According to Eileen K. Hutton, PhD and Eman S. Hassan, MBBch, there should be a delay of a minimum of two minutes before cord clamping. This prevents anemia over the first 3 months of life and enriching iron stores and ferritin levels for as long as 6 months. (Ref. “Late vs Early Clamping of the Umbilical Cord in Full-term Neonates,” JAMA, March 21,2007)

Cord blood is obtained by syringing out the placenta through the umbilical cord at the time of childbirth, after the cord has been detached fromstemcell 300x253 cord bloodthe newborn. Cord blood is collected because it contains stem cells, including hematopoietic cells, which can be used to treat hematopoietic and genetic disorders. Although the cord blood does contain stem cells, there are generally not enough stem cells in one unit of cord blood to treat an adult patient. The placenta is a much better source of stem cells since it contains up to ten times more stem cells than cord blood. Some placental blood may be returned to the neonatal circulation if the umbilical cord is not prematurely clamped. If the umbilical cord is not clamped, such as in an extended-delayed cord clamping protocol, a physiological postnatal occlusion occurs upon interaction with cold air, when the internal gelatinous substance, called Wharton’s jelly, swells around the umbilical artery and veins.

In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration regulates cord blood under the category of “Human Cells, Tissues, and Cellular and Tissue Based-Products.” The Code of Federal Regulations under which the FDA regulates public and private cord blood banks is Title 21 Section 1271. Both public and private cord blood banks are eligible for voluntary accreditation with either the American Association of Blood Banks AABB or the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy FACT. Potential clients can check the current accreditation status of banks from the AABB list of accredited cord blood banks or the FACT search engine of accredited cord blood banks. Other countries also have regulations pertaining to cord blood.

Indeed, physicians and researchers have begun to make progress evaluating the safety and efficacy of umbilical cord blood stem cells for certain therapeutic uses beyond blood cancers and genetic diseases of the blood.

The use of cord blood stem cells in treating conditions such as brain injury and type 1 diabetes is already being studied in humans, and earlier stage research is being conducted for treatments of stroke, and hearing loss. However, apart from blood disorders, the use of cord blood for other diseases is not a routine clinical modality and remains a major challenge for the stem cell community.

Current estimates indicate that approximately 1 in 3 Americans could benefit from regenerative medicine, and children whose cord blood stem cells are available for their own potential use could be among the first to benefit from new therapies as they become available. With autologous (the person’s own) cells, there is no risk of the immune system rejecting the cells, so physicians and researchers are only performing these potential cord blood therapies on children who have their own stem cells available.