What is Cord Blood Banking?

Cord blood is the blood that remains in the umbilical cord (During pregnancy, the umbilical cord provides nutrients and oxygen to your developing baby. After birth, the umbilical cord is no longer needed – so it is clamped) of the babies after the baby is born. 

Umbilical cord blood is made up of various stem cells with an abundance of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). Stem cells are powerful cells that can replace other types of cells, regenerate, renew, and replace damaged cells with healthy cells. These unique properties make stem cells valuable.

The hematopoietic stem cells that can be found in the umbilical cord blood are responsible for developing your child’s blood and immune system. These cells are responsible for maintaining our blood and immune system throughout life!

For more than 30 years, cord blood stem cells have been used for stem cell transplantation to rebuild new healthy blood and immune system in patients. And because of their unique properties, researchers and scientists are now researching the possible use of cord blood cells in research of regenerative medicine to find out if cord blood can stimulate the body’s repair system for certain conditions such as autism. .

Even so,cord blood banking is not a new concept. Families have been storing cord blood for decades and, more importantly, many families have benefited from the bank’s decision.

After your baby is born, even after delays in cord clamping, you can collect or store cord blood or ‘bank’ it for your family. Umbilical cord blood banking, sometimes referred to as stem cell banking or stem cell protection, collects blood that persists in the umbilical cord, processes the blood to remove stem cells, and for potential future therapies.

Cord Blood Uses:

Umbilical cord blood is only approved for use in “hematopoietic stem cell transplant” procedures in patients with disorders affecting the hematopoietic (blood-forming) system. 

Cord blood are rich in blood-forming stem cells that can be used in blood cancer patients such as leukemia and lymphoma and some disorders of the blood and immune system, such as sickle cell disease and the Viscott-Aldrich syndrome.

“Umbilical cord blood is useful because it is a source of stem cells that form in blood cells. 

Cord blood can also be used for transplantation in those who need regeneration, that is, the regrowth of these blood-forming cells.

For example, in many cancer patients, the disease is found in blood cells. 

Chemotherapy treatment of the cancer patient can kill both cancer cells and healthy blood-forming stem cells. Stem cells transplanted from cord blood can help regenerate healthy blood cells after chemotherapy.

However, cord blood is not a cure for all medical conditions.

As cord blood contains stem cells, there have been cases of stem cell fraud related to cord blood.

Many people’s have the misconception that stem cells can cure any disease, but that is not the reality. If patients are being promoted for uses other than blood stem cell regeneration, then patients must be aware.

Umbilical Cord Cell treatment for autism

Infusion of umbilical cord blood seems not to improve social skills in children with autism, with the results to date of the largest clinical trial on the effectiveness of treatment for autism. Independent experts say the results are unfortunate but not unexpected. 

Umbilical Cord Treatment for leukemia

Cord blood stem cell transplants have been used since the early 1990s to treat children and adults with leukemia. To date, there have been over 35,000 cord blood transplants worldwide, and most have been for leukemia and other blood disorders. So , Cord blood is one of the promising 

Cord blood banking benefits

You can choose the cord blood bank for their child for reasons, including:

Umbilical cord blood has been used in transplantation for over thirty years and can be used to treat around 80 conditions today. So it’s promising and useful.

Regenerative medical diagnostic tests use umbilical cord blood for conditions such as autism and cerebral palsy.

Families could have insurance for different health conditions knowing they can access a potential medical resource if needed.

Unlike securing bone marrow stem cells, the umbilical cord offers an easy, non-invasive way to secure the umbilical cord, which is an invasive and painful procedure or attempts to find a match in an umbilical cord blood bank. public.

Collecting stem cells moments after birth means they are not exposed to potentially harmful factors, such as age or disease, affecting stem cells collected later in life.

Your baby is always an ideal genetic match for your umbilical cord blood stem cells, so it could be really useful for his future health conditions.