How much cord blood do I actually need?

By Cord Blood Advisor on December 28th, 2007

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 is about 20 million nucleated cells per kilogram of body weight” (one kilogram equals 2.2 pounds).

“…patients who received no more than 10 million nucleated cells per kilogram had a 75 percent probability of death, whereas recipients of at least 30 million nucleated cells per kilogram had a 30 percent probability of death.” Reference: Editorial by Gluckman, E. NEJM 2001;344:1860

But, what is the concentration of mononuclear cells in a typical Cord Blood collection? The answer to that question comes from a study of families participating in the Sibling Cord Blood Donor Program.

In these 542 cases, the cord blood was collected by the family’s personal OB/Gyn, at hundreds of different hospitals. This is a situation just like private cord blood banking. In their study, the mean cord blood volume and nucleated cell count were 103.1 mL (including anticoagulant) and 890 million, respectively. Reference: W Reed, et al, Blood 2003; 101(1):351

Thus, on average, a cord blood sample contains 8.6 million nucleated cells per millileter. Putting together the cell dose recommended by Gluckman and the average concentration found by Reed et al., one can calculate that….