Introduction to Umbilical Cord Blood

A natural source for hematopoietic Stem Cells is the blood stored in the placenta and umbilical cord. It is a common occurence for the Cord Blood to be collected after it has been detached from the newborn baby and used as a source of Stem Cells in transplantations.

A new industry growing from this new source of Stem Cells are both public and private Cord Blood banks. Public Cord Blood banks are used to store cord blood for the benefit of the general public and use the National Marrow Donor Program to match core blood patients throughout the United States. On the other hand, private cord blood banks are for-profit organizations who store cord blood for the use of donor’s family and relatives.

The reason cord blood is so important is because cord blood Stem Cells are more proliferate and give a higher chance of matching relatives than Stem Cells from bone marrow. Fathers have a one in four possibility of matching their child’s cord blood stem cell, while siblings have a one in four chance of being a perfect cord blood match.

Because there is so much at stake, public cord blood banks are given strong support by the medical community. Private cord blood banks are usually not encouraged unless there is a history of specified genetic diseases in the family. Some countries such as France and Italy have gone so as far to ban the practice of private banking.