Cord blood banking Working group had prepared a guideline that explains the collection and banking procedure for the healthcare professionals of Canada. This piece will help to know the details about the umbilical cord blood banking.
The first umbilical cord transplant was done in the year of 1988 which is used for bone marrow transplant as an alternate of hematopoietic stem cells. Cord blood has many benefits over bone marrow and mobilized peripheral blood stem cells needed for transplantation, along with its availability, minimized risks for the donor, fewer requirements for HLA matching, and lower chances of GVHD. Establishing various cord blood banks has enabled transplant centers across the world to get quick access to appropriate cord blood units. In addition, more than 30,000 of cord blood transplantation has been done till date.
For blood-forming stem cells, umbilical cord blood is highly enriched and offers some advantages in setting the transplants. It can be found easily in the cord blood inventories by the use of advanced search algorithms in relation to the established guidelines. Another advantage of using cord blood is its increased flexibility in matching HLA, although fully matched CBUs are connected with the best outcomes during cord blood transplantation. The major drawback of cord blood transplantation is the limited dose available in CBUs of stem cells. UCB volume limits the usefulness of cord blood transplantation for larger recipients, including most adults, but even in pediatric transplantation, it remains a problem.
A recent data analysis evaluated the use of transplant utilizing umbilical cord blood stored in with a public bank or in private banks. A CBU kept in a public bank is available to any patient for a transplant and is therefore not restricted for the donating family. There is no guarantee with public banks that donors or members of their family will necessarily have access in the future to their specific donor unit. Umbilical CBUs processed for private family use.
In case of private banks, the newborn child’s family pays a fee to process and store the CBU, and typically the mother is named the banked CBU’s legal custodian. The banked CBU is therefore only accessible to the family that banked it and will be available if and when necessary.
Despite of increasing proof of the therapeutic value of stem cells derived from umbilical cord and promoting the collection of umbilical cord blood for allogeneic, family-driven, or autologous media use, surveys reveal that the majority of pregnant women (70 to 80 percent) lack the understanding of stem cells and cord blood banking and need more details. In assessing their decisions, women might be encouraged to donate the umbilical cord blood of their baby to a public cord blood bank. However, as an immoral act of responsibility, she must store their baby’s cord blood to a private bank for the benefit of both the child and immediate family member’s future.