1. What is cord blood?

Cord blood is the blood remaining in the baby's umbilical cord and placenta following birth and is routinely discarded. The cord blood is rich in stem cells, which are the building blocks of blood and the immune system and can be collected and stored for future medical use.

2. What are cord blood stem cells?

Cord blood stem cells are the building blocks of blood and immune system. They are the origin of white blood cells that fight infection, red blood cells that carry oxygen and platelets that promote clotting. The ability of cord blood stem cells to differentiate into other types of cells in the body is a discovery that holds promise for improving the treatment of some of the most common ailments such as heart disease, diabetes, stroke, spinal cord injury, diabetic ulcer, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, to name a few.

3. How are cord blood stem cells used?

Cord blood stem cells are a major source of hematopoietic (blood) stem cells and are mostly used to help regenerate a patient’s blood and immune system. After the existing immune system is weakened by chemotherapy and radiation, an infusion of stem cells or a stem cells transplant is performed. The stem cells that are transplanted then migrate to the patient’s marrow where they multiply and regenerate cells to create a new blood and immune system for the patient and begin the normal production of the blood cells.

4. Why should I have my baby's umbilical cord blood collected and preserved?

Preserving your child’s cord blood stem cells provides an assurance that your child and possibly other members of your family will have a life saving protection against diseases that can be cured using these cells. More and more parents are now deciding to store their baby's cord blood stem cells, not only for the present medical applications but also for the future potential uses. Banking a baby’s cord blood stem cells is particularly important if a family has a predisposition to certain illnesses or to families with diverse ethnic backgrounds. It is also valuable for families adopting a newborn or using assisted reproductive techniques.

5. How do cord blood stem cells compare to other sources of stem cells?

Cord blood stem cells offer many advantages over other sources of stem cells. Cord blood is a rich and non-controversial source of stem cells unlike embryonic stem cells. The collection procedure is quick and very safe and poses no risk or discomfort to mother or baby. Risk of viral infection using cord blood stem cells is also very low. Cord blood stem cells transplants cause less Graft vs. Host Disease (GVHD), a transplant rejection that is the leading cause of death in stem cells transplant patients. Cord blood stem cells can be successfully used even when there isn’t a perfect match between donor and recipient whereas bone marrow transplants not only require a perfect match, but finding a donor is difficult and time consuming. Cord blood stem cells occur in much higher concentrations than bone marrow and have greater capacity to proliferate.

6. What is Graft vs. Host Disease (GVHD)?

Graft vs. Host disease is a transplant complication that sometimes occurs following an allogenic transplant. In case of GVHD, the immune cells from the donor (Graft) attacks the body of the transplant patient(host). GVHD can range from mild to life threatening.

7. What is HLA matching?

Human Leukocyte Antigens or HLA are six proteins that appear on the surface of white blood cells and other tissues in the body. These six HLA points determine tissue compatibility between a patient and a donor. The higher the tissue compatibility, the higher are the chances of a transplant being successful. However, in the case of an autologous cord blood stem cell transplant, there is a perfect match of HLA for the baby.

8. What types of diseases are treated with stem cells transplantation?

Currently, cord blood stem cells are used in the treatment of over 80 life-threatening diseases, including some cancers, genetic diseases, blood disorders, cerebral palsy and immune system deficiencies. For more information, see diseases treated by cord blood stem cells.

9. What are the possible future applications of cord blood stem cells?

New treatments continue to emerge as doctors and scientists research potential future treatments for a variety of diseases including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, spinal cord injury, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.

10. How successful are cord blood transplants?

Cord blood transplants have been demonstrated to be as successful as bone marrow in the cases in which they have been used. By comparison, cord blood has other advantages over bone marrow, including ease of collection and better tolerance of HLA mismatches and easy availability.

11. At present, what is the success rate of cord blood transplants?

About 20,000 cord blood transplants have been done worldwide for 80 diseases with a success rate of about 80%.

12. If there is a history of a disease in the family, such as leukemia, would it be in the genes? If so, would stem cells transplantation from the cord blood be an effective way to treat the disease?

Leukemia is not present at the beginning of life, but is developed by mutation or change in normal genes later in life. The stem cells in cord blood represent cells before any changes have occurred in their genes. In case of other types of cancers (e.g. solid tumors), stem cells are not involved and can be used for transplantation. Recently a case report was published in the journal, Pediatrics, of a 3-year old girl treated for childhood leukemia with her own cord blood transplant. At the time of publication she was doing well and in complete remission 20 months after transplant. It should also be noted that another significant reason to bank a child’s cord blood stem cells is in the event it matches a family member with a disease proven treatable with stem cells therapy, these cord blood stem cells can be used for treatment.

13. Can the baby’s stem cells be used for the second baby and vice versa? Or for a relative or friend?

Stem cells from a baby are a perfect match only for the baby or for an identical twin, though they may be a close match for a second baby (a 1:4 chance). The HLA of a relative or friend must closely match, based on general transplant guidelines for it to be able to be used for transplant for them.

14. Why is there a need for women from all racial and ethnic groups to collect their baby's cord blood?

As a consequence of the fact that tissue traits that are used to match a cord blood unit with a patient are inherited, a patient's most specific match will be cord blood directly from that child. Multiple race individuals will face a great challenge in finding a match from a person other than themselves because of the rarity of their tissue traits. Some tissue traits are more likely to be found among people of a particular racial or ethnic heritage. That is why collecting and storing your child’s cord blood privately is so important for your specific child.

15. Should I collect and store cord blood for all of my children?

We recommend that you store cord blood stem cells for all of your children to ensure an exact match for each of them. In addition, saving cord blood for all your children increases the chances of finding a match among family members. The same applies for multiple births. Not only will you have a perfect match for each baby, but because the volume collected per baby in multiple births is usually smaller, you will also potentially ensure that an adequate volume of stem cells is available if a transplant is ever needed.