Cord Blood Banking Clearinghouse

A comprehensive source of information regarding cord blood, cord blood banks and banking, cord blood donation and storage, cord blood registry, potential and real medical benefits of banking, and all other issues related to umbilical cord blood. Fair and regularly updated, Cord Blood Banking Clearinghouse should be one's first stop for cord blood research.

Friday, May 05, 2006

Cord Blood Carries A Universal Panacea

by Ashman

The human blood taken from the placenta and umbrical cord is known as cord blood. The cord blood is collected for the stem cells present in the blood. The umbrical cord blood is very rich in stem cells

The multipotent cord blood stem cells are very helpful to the medical science in treating many human diseases and disorders. They can effectively treat the health problems that were earlier treated using bone marrow stem cells. They are less likely to be rejected than bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cells. The cord blood stem cells are more active and have a higher chance of matching family members than stem cells from bone marrow. The medical science believes that fathers have a 25% chance of matching their child's cord blood stem cells.

The treatment using the cord blood stem cells is known as Cord Blood Stem Cell Transplant Therapy. The therapy, developed in 1980s, has been used to treat 75 diseases and disorders since its discovery.

The medical science has, so far, used it successfully in treating many genetic diseases, cancers, and blood disorders including several types of anemia, leukemia, lymphoma, brain tumors, ewing's sarcoma, multiple myeloma, neuroblastoma, ovarian cancer, renal cell carcinoma, small-cell lung cancer, testicular cancer, waldenström macroglobulinemia etc.

Storage:

The cord blood is collected, after umbilical cord has been cut from the newborn. It's then stored in liquid nitrogen and cryopreserved in the cord blood banks for later use. The cryopreserved blood is preserved by cooling to low sub-zero temperatures, such as (typically) -80°C or -196°C, so that it can be used whenever need is there.

The new parents can get the cord blood stored or they can even donate it to a public cord blood bank.

Usage:

The cryopreserved cord blood is liquified and washed of the cryoprotectant, before injecting into the vein of the patient.

The treatment, in which the stem cells are collected from a different donor, is known as allogeneic treatment.

The treatment, in which the stem cells are collected from the same patient's cord blood, on whom they are used, is known as autologous and the treatment in which the stem cells are collected from identical individuals, is called syngeneic.

The xenogeneic transfer (between different species) of stem cells is under studies yet.
About the Author

Author provides the information about Cord Blood, Cord Blood Stem Cell Transplant Therapy and it's Benefits. For more information about Health Care visit his site http://www.breakingupdate.com/articles/health-and-fitness.asp
 
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