The Need for Cord Blood Donations

Originally, patients who received chemotherapy which wiped out the immune system would receive a transplant  of blood Stem Cells (”hematopoetic” Stem Cells) from the bone marrow of a matched donor. The USA National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) maintains a public registry of adults who are willing to consider bone marrow donation, and similar registries exist in other countries. Despite these registries, about 50% of all patients needing a Stem Cell transplant cannot find a matching bone marrow donor.

Umbilical Cord Blood is also a rich source of blood Stem Cells that  can be transplanted to regenerate a patient’s immune system.  There are other parts of the human body that contain Stem Cells, but the only sources which are concentrated enough to be harvested for a transplant are the bone marrow, the circulating blood, and the umbilical cord.