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Cord Blood

Umblical Cord Blood for Potential Future Transplantation       Call Dr. Paka for an appointment  212-581-8675

Cord blood is the blood that remains in the umbilical cord and placenta after a baby is born.  Large volumes of cord blood are now being "wasted" as "discarded human material" that could theoretically be easily collected, typed, screened for infections, and banked cryogenically for transplantation. Clinical use suggests that cord blood may provide many advantages over bone marrow, especially when the cord blood comes from an immediate family member.  Most people do not have an HLA-identical (human-leukocyte-antigen) sibling available, and they must look outside of their families.  There is a national registry of potential bone marrow donors, but finding an identical match and convincing that individual to undergo the unpleasant donation procedure is not always easy.  Many individuals who could potentially benefit from transplantation die while awaiting donors.

Cord blood has been found to be rich source of stem cells like bone marrow, and is currently being used as an alternative to bone marrow  to treat a number of life-threatening diseases.  Stem cells, the building blocks of blood and the immune system, reproduce into other cells like red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets.  Stem cells from cord blood are unique because they are immature cells. When cord blood is used in transplantation there is an increased compatibility between the donor and recipient as compared to bone marrow stem cells.

DISEASES TREATED WITH CORD BLOOD:

  • Majority of childhood cancers probably triggered by environmental factors

  • Malignancies.

  • Blood disorders like Fanconi anemia, sicklecell and thalassemia etc.

  • Inborn errors and

  • Immunodeficiencies.


CORD BLOOD FACTS:

The cord blood is an exact match for the new born from which it was obtained and may be useful in treating other family members.

Cord blood stem cells from a family members result in

  • double the survival rate for certain diseases when
    compared to treatments using cord blood stem cells
    from an unrelated donor.

  • significantly reduce the incidence of rejection in family
    members.

Reconstitution of the bone marrow can be a life-saving procedure in the treatment of hematologic disease or malignancy.

The use of cord blood, there are clearly many questions about this technology that remains to be answered.  Some are relatively simple, such as the success rate of the procedure for various diseases and at various body weights.  And some will be more difficult, such as:

  • What is the probability that any individual will ever need his or her own cord blood for transplantation?

  • Viability of cells in long-term storage

  • Contamination of maternal blood

  • In the future, there may be other medical approach to manage these diseases

  • Ethical issues; all specimens would need to be tested before use. In the course of testing, if genetic diseases or nonpaternity is discovered, should that be disclosed to mother, father, or child?

  • Once the cord blood is banked, to whom the cells there belong? Parents   who paid the fee or the child   from whom they came?

Talk to your Obstetrician for further information.

Ref:

Silberstein LE, Jefries LC. Placental-blood banking - a new frontier in transfusion medicine. N Engl J Med 1996;335:199-201

Kurtzberg J et al. Placental blood as a source of hematopoitic stem cells for transplantaion into unrelated recipients. N Engl J Med 1996; 335: 157-166

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