Stem Cell Research – Banking Blood Cord – PLEASE HELP?
Are you wondering about whether or not you should make contact with the local cord blood bank?
The strategy of cord blood banking has witnessed an improved acceptance in the past several years. At the moment people are thinking about whether they can bank their infant’s cord blood. In the past, the umbilical cord used to be thrown away after the child was finally delivered, however with growing knowledge of how helpful the blood of the umbilical cord is, the doctors have now begun to store the blood of the umbilical cord in cord blood banks.
After a ton of medical research has been done on what might be done with the umbilical cord researchers have uncovered that it is very helpful to store the umbilical cord in a cord blood bank. The blood of the umbilical cord is incredibly useful in the treatment of different diseases related to the immune system and also other blood related disorders which people suffer from. Until relatively recently the umbilical blood was never stored in a cord blood bank; however after the mid 1990s Scientists have began to recognize the magnitude of umbilical blood and are finally distributing awareness of the importance of storing umbilical blood in a cord blood bank.
The growing importance of the Cord blood bank
The most basic reason why people are now thinking about using a cord blood bank is because the umbilical blood is considered to be so precious. This is due to the fact that it has high amount of hematopoietic stem cells and can be stored in the cord blood banks safely for years. The importance of having a high quantity of hematopoietic stem cells is that this specific type of blood has the capability to generating new white blood cells and red blood cells. The concept behind the use of cord blood is similar to that of bone marrow transplants which have been in use for years. However unlike the bone marrow which needed to be matched perfectly, the utilization of the umbilical blood does not involve such a perfect match.
There are many higher chances of treating an ailment with the use of umbilical blood than there are with the bone marrow transplants since the probability of a patient’s body rejecting the umbilical blood are much less in comparison to his odds of rejecting the bone marrow.
The continued stem cell research shows that there are approximately 70 diseases that can be cured with the use of the umbilical cord blood. It is for this reason that more people are finally starting to keep their baby’s umbilical cord blood in a local cord blood bank. The cord blood is not only usable by the child whose umbilical cord blood is kept, but this blood can also be useful to the family members of the children as well. The storing of umbilical blood is of high importance due to the fact that research has shown that the use of the umbilical blood could facilitate in treating cancers, damaged internal organs and even some blood disorders, which is one of the major reasons why a good deal of people are choosing to utilize a cord blood bank service.
If you need to get your baby’s umbilical blood stored must pick a cord blood bank well before the delivery of your child because not all hospitals are equipped collect and transport the umbilical blood to the cord blood bank. Therefore you will have to to choose the cord blood bank and inform your doctor almost 2 months in advance so that you can rationalize the progression of documentation and preparation for the collection and storage of your baby’s umbilical cord blood to the cord blood bank.
I was just watching an amazing video about a little girl who was “cured” using her own stored blood cord from birth
http://www.cordblood.com/azfamily1.asp.
My question is, if someone were to have a a syndrome, like Retts Sydrome for example where they had a mutation to a gene (in retts the MECP2 mutation) would this mutation also be in the blood cord that was stored – therefore making it a not good source
Filed under Stem Cell by on Oct 29th, 2009.

Comments on Stem Cell Research – Banking Blood Cord – PLEASE HELP?
It’s best to use an unrelated HLA-matched donor to the recipient.