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How is Umbilical Cord Collected, Processed and Stored
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After your baby’s cord blood has been collected, your obstetrician or midwife will clamp and cut a segment of the umbilical cord. This cord will be stored in a sterile container provided in your Umbilical Cord Collection Kit.
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The umbilical cord collected is then sent to CordLife's laboratory for processing and cryopreservation . Prior to umbilical cord processing, the identity of the umbilical cord collected is verified by our laboratory technologist to ensure that the unit belongs to the right client.
All subsequent steps are performed in a biohazard safety cabinet to further eliminate the risk of contamination.
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The sterilized tissue sections are then transferred into multiple cryovials added with cryoprotectant solution to safeguard the viability of the stem cells in the tissue sections during cryopreservation.
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Once the cryoprotectant solution has been added, the tissue sections are frozen gradually in the controlled-rate freezer, where the temperature is lowered by 1-2°C per minute to preserve the viability of the stem cells.
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After the controlled-rate freezing process, the cryovials are transferred into a MVE anti-contamination vapour-phase liquid nitrogen storage system for long term cryopreservation at -190°C.
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Advantages of CordLife’s processing method
Unlike other stem cell banks, CordLife does not isolate or expand your baby’s stem cells from the umbilical cord before cryopreservation. Cryopreserving stem cells in its original form will yield the following advantages:
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Maintain the original characteristics of stem cells: when expanded from tissue sections, stem cells not only multiply faster but will also have better quality than cells grown from a pool of expanded cells. The risk of cell mutation is also minimised this way.
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Retain the potential of all stem cells: storing tissue sections of the umbilical cord is the safest and most reliable way to store EpSCs and MSCs. Other potentially valuable stem cells which have yet been identified today may also be discovered in the future will open up more medical options for your family in the future.
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Benefit from future advancements: The technique available today may limit the proliferative capacity of the cells, thus may affect the overall cell quality and characteristics. By cryopreserving your baby’s umbilical cord in its original state, you are given the opportunity to draw on the latest stem cell isolation and expansion techniques available at the time of the medical therapy. In doing so, the original characteristics of the stem cells can be retained and superior quality stem cells can be derived for future medical therapy.
Advantages of CordLife’s storage method
Multiple cryovials
CordLife uses multiple cryovials to store umbilical cord tissue sections. By storing in cryovials, you have the option to withdraw one cryovial at a time without affecting the viability of the tissue sections in other cryovials. The cryovials are further wrapped inside an overwrap bag to further safeguard against cross-contamination.
When it comes to umbilical cord blood banking, we always insist on the best so that our clients can have better transplant and cellular therapy outcome. The cryogenic storage tanks used by CordLife, MVE Anti-contamination Vapour-phase Liquid Nitrogen Storage System, have been used and trusted by the majority of private cord blood banks in the world for decades. Unlike other storage systems available in the market today, our tanks have never been recalled by the U.S. FDA or the manufacturer.
MVE Anti-contamination Vapour-phase Liquid Nitrogen Storage System
Designed for optimum performance
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Umbilical cord stem cells remain at cryopreservation condition as long as they are stored below Glass Transition Temperature (-135°C). MVE system is designed to feature precise temperature control at -190°C, well below the minimum storage temperature.
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MVE system is equipped with a monitoring system that scans for any out-of-range conditions to ensure the temperature is always maintained at an optimum range.
- A liquid nitrogen reservoir is present below the sample platform. This will typically maintain the desired temperature for the samples in the storage tank for more than 20 days due to vapour created by the liquid nitrogen.
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