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It is very important that parents who choose to donate their child’s Cord Blood go through an “informed” consent process. Federal law requires that parents sign a consent form before Cord Blood is collected. Ideally, the consent form should reveal the possible final uses of the Cord Blood. There are also medical requirements for donation.
In […]

Financial Con: Why bother? Common sense suggests there is no reason to process a sample when you don’t know if it will ever be used. Separation of MNC adds to the laboratory cost of processing, and this cost is passed on to the consumer. Financial Pro: Lower storage costs

The smaller the volume of the final […]

A few private Cord Blood banks freeze the blood whole, while most process it. There are two stages of processing: Volume Reduction and Separation.
Volume Reduction can be accomplished either by sedimentation or spinning in a centrifuge. (Note: sedimentation uses a chemical called “Hespan Starch” or “Hetastarch” which is made by Dupont Pharmaceuticals.) Afterwards, the blood […]

In other words, how much Cord Blood is needed to be confident of a successful transplant? The crucial thing is not the volume of the blood sample, but the number of Stem Cells it contains. These are measured with a stain “CD34+” that picks out all mononuclear cells, including Stem Cells.
The “optimal (transplant) dose […]

Sibling that currently needs a transplant
Sibling that may need a future transplant
Other family member that may need a future transplant

(1) Sibling that currently needs a transplant: If an older sibling currently needs a transplant, most medical insurance carriers, even Medicaid, will cover the cost of collecting Cord Blood. (2) Sibling that may need a future […]

These are diseases for which Stem Cell treatments have not been proven to have any efficacy in human beings. In a “Phase I” clinical trial, the purpose of the study is to find out if the therapy makes any difference in the course of the disease, as compared to a control group. Some doctors may […]

These are diseases for which Stem Cell treatments have been shown beneficial, but have not been adopted as standard therapy. For some of these diseases, Stem Cell transplants only slow the progression of the disease, but do not produce a cure. For other diseases, Stem Cell treatments may effect a cure, but the optimum dosage […]

These are diseases for which Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplants (HSCT) are a standard treatment. For some diseases they are the only therapy, and in other diseases they are only employed when front-line therapies have failed or the disease is very aggressive. Most of the diseases for which HSCT is a standard treatment are disorders of […]

Hematopoietic Stem Cells are capable of evolving into all the specific cell types in the blood and immune system. They can be found in people of all ages. The three sources of hematopoietic Stem Cells which are routinely used for medical treatments are:

the bone marrow of an adult person
the peripheral blood of an adult person
the […]

YES! Unless your family has special medical issues, most parents don’t know which of their children have matching HLA tissue types. Your child’s HLA types come in pairs; in each pair, one is from the mother and one is from the father. The odds of siblings being a perfect match are 1 in 4. A […]