why does our bone marrow have stem cells?
Are you wondering about whether or not you should make contact with the local cord blood bank?
The general idea of cord blood banking has seen much increased acceptance in the past ten years. Nowadays people are seriously considering bank their infant’s cord blood. Previously, the umbilical cord used to be abandoned after the child was actually born, however with growing recognition of how beneficial 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 whole lot of medical research has been conducted on what might be done with the umbilical cord researchers have uncovered that it is in fact beneficial to store the umbilical cord in a cord blood bank. The blood of the umbilical cord is quite useful in working with various diseases related to the immune system and also other blood related disorders which people suffer from. Until the mid 1990s the umbilical blood was never stored in a cord blood bank; But after the mid 1990s Scientists have began to understand the importance of umbilical blood and are finally distributing awareness of the importance of storing umbilical blood in a cord blood bank.
The developing importance of the Cord blood bank
The basic reason why people are now researching using a cord blood bank is due to the fact that the umbilical blood is considered to be so precious. This is due to the fact that it includes high amount of hematopoietic stem cells and can be stored in the cord blood banks safely for years. The importance of having a large amount of hematopoietic stem cells is that this specific type of blood is capable of 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 a long time. However unlike the bone marrow which needed to be a perfect match, the utilization of the umbilical blood does not require such a perfect match.
There are much increased chances of treating an ailment with the use of umbilical blood than there are with the bone marrow transplants since the chances of a patient’s body rejecting the umbilical blood are much less in comparison to his chances of rejecting the bone marrow.
The ongoing stem cell research shows that there are more or less 70 diseases that can be cured with the use of the umbilical cord blood. It is for this reason that an increasing number of people are now starting to save their baby’s umbilical cord blood in a local cord blood bank. The cord blood is not only helpful for the child whose umbilical cord blood is stored, but this blood can also be useful to the family members of the children as well. The use of umbilical blood is vital due to the fact that research shows that the use of the umbilical blood could facilitate in curing cancer, damaged internal organs and even blood disorders, which is one of the main reasons why a good deal of people are starting to use a cord blood bank service.
Those of you who wish to have your baby’s umbilical blood stored will need to choose a cord blood bank prior to the delivery of your newborn because not all hospitals are equipped collect and transport the umbilical blood to the cord blood bank. As a result you will have to to choose the cord blood bank and inform your doctor approximately 2 months in advance so that you can streamline the process of documentation and preparation for the collection and storage of your baby’s umbilical cord blood to the cord blood bank.
What is the point of stem cells? Do they have any particular use in the body other than being used for stem cell research?
Filed under Cord Blood And Stem Cell by on Jun 14th, 2010.

Comments on why does our bone marrow have stem cells?
They are just cells that have not developed into specialised cells.
For example, the stem cells that make up your bone marrow are actually blood stem cells. These will develop to become the many different types of blood cell.
Here’s a good page that details this: