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Umbilical Cord Blood Banking
Little was it known that cord blood would hold the key to numerous human diseases when the first report on stem/progenitor cells was released in 1974. Since that time, from the first cord blood transplant performed in 1988 on a six year old boy in Paris, France, to the United States government passing legislation in 2005 ensuring that all expecting families are provided fair and balanced information on cord blood banking; the science has been leaping forward and new breakthroughs are made every day.
Stem cells, and the debate surrounding them, have without a doubt been mainstream news for quite sometime now. Ethics, politics, and society in general have taken a stance on stem cells and how they are derived causing a gridlock on the road to the future of medicine.
But there is a non-controversial source of stem cells that is readily available and an answer for all the debate. Cord blood taken from the umbilical cord of a new born baby. With newborn children being delivered every single day, the potential to store cord blood and later utilize it to treat and in some cases cure diseases is a real one. The matter is quite simple and can be performed with almost no effort at all.
Once a child is born, the umbilical cord is often considered to be waste material and just thrown away along with the placenta. However, the apparent present state surrounding umbilical cord blood has made the umbilical cord and placenta much more valuable. It is now known that blood extracted from the umbilical cord is a rich source of stem cells.
Collecting and storing the blood is not complex. A doctor or midwife extracts the blood with a syringe after a baby's umbilical cord is cut. Three to four ounces of placental blood is drawn from the umbilical cord. In preparation for freezing and preserving the blood, the content of the syringe is deposited in a bag or vial for the parents--or a medical courier--to ship off to a cord-blood company's storage site. Once the blood is stored, the potential for future treatments becomes a reality.
Since the year 2000, there have been dramatic medical advances in the arena of stem cell research, and more are announced every month. The science of stem cell transplantation is continually improving. Methods are being applied in clinical trials by several companies with the intent to bring technologies and methods of "expanding" the stem cell population in the laboratory to the market. And although it is still poorly understood, the evolution from pluripotent stem cells down to blood stem cells is becoming more clear. The most recent news reports that under the appropriate circumstances, stem cells in blood can be teased to grow into other types of tissue besides blood.
As a result of these breakthroughs, it is not unreasonable to anticipate that cord blood may ultimately be used to treat a wider variety of auto-immune and degenerative diseases than is currently feasible.
Studies propose that stem cells from cord blood offer some significant advantages over those retrieved from bone marrow as well. Readily obtained from the placenta at the time of delivery, stem cells from cord blood are much easier to get. Posing a small risk to the donor, gathering stem cells from bone marrow requires an invasive procedure, usually under general anesthesia, that can cause post-operative pain.
Cord blood stem cell may benefit a broader range of recipients as well. The cells can be stored and transplanted back into the donor or to another member of the donor's family. It is even possible for an unrelated recipient to receive the cells. This differs from bone marrow transplantation because there must be nearly a perfect match of certain tissue proteins between the recipient and donor, otherwise the bone marrow transplant will fail. Even when there are partial tissue mismatches, stem cells derived from cord blood are more likely to engraft.
The use of cord blood may make blood stem cell transplants available more quickly for people who need them. About 30,000 individuals each year are diagnosed with conditions that could be treated with a bone marrow transplant. A suitable tissue match from a relative is found in approximately 25 percent of these individuals. The process of locating a suitable donor can take months, and only 50 percent of patients locate a donor within 4 months. It often is more difficult to find a bone marrow match for members of non-white ethnic and racial groups; transplants from cord blood may make timely treatment accessible for more of these individuals.
Many people do not have time to search for months and thus banked stem cells from cord blood provide the most logical answer. Since they are more readily available, a source of cord blood stem cells can be critical for patients with severe cases of leukemia, anemia, or immune deficiency who would otherwise die before a match could be found.
Cord blood is also less likely to contain certain infectious agents, like some viruses, that can pose a risk to transplant recipients.
In addition, some studies suggest that cord blood may have a greater ability to generate new blood cells than bone marrow. Ounce for ounce, there are nearly 10 times as many blood-producing cells in cord blood. This fact suggests that a smaller number of cord blood cells are needed for a successful transplantation.
In addition, cord blood stem cells present some exciting potential for gene therapy for certain genetic diseases, especially those concerning the immune system. Donald Kohn, MD, and colleagues at the Children's Hospital of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and the University of California in San Francisco, made the first attempt at gene therapy with cord blood in 1993 in three children suffering from adenosine deaminase (ADA) deficiency, a potentially fatal defect that cripples the immune system. The children, who also receive supplementary drug treatment, appear healthy to date, even though their blood now carries only a small amount of the gene introduced into their stem cells.
Overall, the potential for stem cell treatment using cord blood is virtually limitless. Treatments for countless orthopedic disorders such as osteoporosis and even fractures are being developed. Heart disease, numerous plastic surgery cases, brain injury, dental treatments, arthritis, cancer, paralysis, and diabetes are some of the many other conditions that future medical treatments are being created for. The tantalizing images of growing new teeth to replace those that are lost to making paralyzed individuals walk again is all within reach. But the storage of cord blood must come first so that the raw material for these certain future treatments is available.
Families who want to donate their baby's cord blood to a public bank for use by others should be fully informed of their responsibilities and other implications of such donations.
A public cord blood bank is much like a standard blood bank. Donating to a public bank is free, but the public bank will become the owner of your cord blood. But do not be alarmed, donating to a public bank will get you on a registry so you can withdraw cord blood if need be. Donating to a private bank is much like storing something in a vault. You will preserve ownership and the destiny of your cord blood, but collection and storage fees will cost from $1000 to $2000. Public cord blood banks are funded by medical insurance and blood sales. Public banks are typically non-profit while private banks are for-profit businesses.
Those using private banks will be assured their cord blood is instantly obtainable should the need arise. The cord blood which is used will be their baby's blood. Public banks cannot guarantee the availability of a match for a baby's cord blood, though this is usually not a problem. In almost all cases, blood received from a public bank will be from a different donor.
Doctors may charge fees for collecting cord blood. These fees are typically not covered by insurance. However, it is very common for doctors to waive collection fees if the cord blood is donated to a public bank.
Expectant parents can make arrangements before the birth of their child to have their baby's cord blood collected immediately after birth (within 15 minutes of delivery) and stored by a commercial blood bank for their own use. Or they can donate it to a public bank to be available to any appropriately matched individual needing a transplant. If parents use a commercial bank, the initial cost ranges from $250 to $1,500, plus an annual storage fee of $50 to $100. Some health insurance companies are beginning to cover these costs.
Although public banks pay for processing the cord blood sample, they require completion of a lengthy parental health/disease questionnaire. Required testing for diseases such as hepatitis and HIV can be costly for parents. In addition, expectant parents must make arrangements with these banks at least 90 days before the anticipated delivery date.
Overall, cord blood storage is an option available to nearly every expecting family in the world. And in some cases, it may be the most important and beneficial form of insurance a family can have. With recent advances and even more on the way, stem cells derived from cord blood will provide the treatments for many illnesses now and in the future.
ICM provides this list as a service to our readers and does not necessarily endore any of the following cord blood banks.
Public Cord Blood Banks
- Ashley Ross Cord Blood Program of the San Diego Blood Bank
440 Upas St. San Diego, CA 92103
(619) 296-6393 ext 8327
- Bonfils Cord Blood Services Belle Bonfils Memorial Blood Center
Several Denver Colorado locations
(800) 365-0006, opt.2
- Carolinas Cord Blood Bank
2424 Erwin Road, Hock Plaza Suite 601, Durham, NC 27705
(888) ASK-DUKE
- Children's Hospital of Orange County Cord Blood Bank
455 S. Main St., Orange, CA 92868-3874
(714) 997-3000
- CORDUS
1800 Pembrook Drive Suite 300, Orlando, Fl 32810
(407) 667-4844
- Coriell: New Jersey Cord Blood Bank at the Coriell Institute for Medical Research
403 Haddon Ave Camden NJ USA 08103
(856) 966-7377
- Cryobanks International, Inc
(800) 869-8608
- CureSource / Medical University of South Carolina
Gadsden St., Suite 200 Charleston, SC 29401-1192
(877) 723-2247
- Elie Katz Umbilical Cord Blood Program at Community Blood Services
970 Linwood Avenue West, P.O. Box 39, Paramus, NJ 07653-0039
(201) 444-3900
- FamilyCord
11915 La Grange Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90025
(800) 490-CORD (2673)
Cord blood banking offers the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to care for your new baby and take advantage of potential future uses of stem cells. Banking your baby's cord blood stem cells is a potentially life saving gift for your child and your entire family. Stem cell transplants currently have the potential to treat over 70 diseases and are among the most promising medical treatments of the future. Leading medical researchers have demonstrated significant progress towards developing treatments for diseases such as diabetes, Parkinson's, heart disease, and Alzheimer's.
- Gift of Life
7700 Congress Avenue, Suite 2201, Boca Raton, FL 33487
(800) 9-MARROW
- ITxM: The Institute For Transfusion Medicine Cord Blood
Services
Glenview, IL
(877) 448-2673
- J.P. McCarthy Cord Stem Cell Bank
4100 John R, Detroit, Michigan 48201
(800) 527-6266
- LifebankUSA
45 Horsehill Road, Cedar Knolls, NJ 07927
(877) 543-3226
- LifeCord
4039 Newberry Road, Gainesville, Florida 32607
(352) 224-1600
- M. D. Anderson Cord Blood Bank
1515 Holcombe Boulevard, Houston, TX 77030
(800) 392-1611
- Michigan Community Blood Centers Cord Blood Bank
1036 Fuller NE-PO Box 1704, Grand Rapids, MI 49501-1704
(866) MIBLOOD
- NYBC National Cord Blood Program
310 East 67th Street, New York, NY 10021
(866) 767-NCBP (6227)
- Puget Sound Blood Center
921 Terry Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104
(206) 292-6500
- SaneronCCEL
3802 Spectrum Blvd. Suite 145, Tampa, FL 33612
(813) 977-7664
- Sibling Donor Cord Blood Program at Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute
Oakland, CA
(510) 450-7605
- St. Louis Cord Blood Bank
3662 Park Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63110
(314) 268-2787
- Stemcyte
400 Rolyn Place, Arcadia, CA 91007
(866) 783-6298
- University of Colorado Cord Blood Bank
12635 E. Montview Blvd. Suite #300, Aurora, Colorado 80010
(303) 724-1306
- University of Iowa's Hematopoietic Stem Cell Bank
300 PCO, Iowa City, IA 52242-2500
(319) 384-0000
Private Cord Blood Banks
- Alpha Cord Inc.
2200 Century Parkway #9, Atlanta, Georgia 30345
(866) 396-7283
- CellMed Biotech
Conover, NC
(866) 460-2554
- CorCell
Philadelphia, PA
(888) 326-7235
- Cord Blood Registry
1200 Bayhill Drive, Suite 301, San Bruno, California 94066
(888) 932-6568
- Cord Blood Solutions
Alpharetta, GA
(866) 584-STEM(7836)
- Cord Partners, a Cord Blood America Company
9000 W. Sunset Boulevard, Suite 400, Los Angeles, CA 90069
(310) 432-4090
- Cryobanks International
Altamonte Springs, FL; near Orlando
(800) 869-8608
- Cryo-Cell International
Oldsmar, FL
(800) 786-7235
- CureSource
65 Gadsden St., Suite 200 Charleston, SC 29401-1192
(877) 723-2247
- DomaniCell
21 Main Street, Court Plaza South, East Wing, Suite 304, Hackensack, NJ 07601
201-883-5308
- Family Cord Blood Services
11915 La Grange Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90025
(888) 828-CORD (2673)
- Family Link
Louisville, Kentucky
(502) 629-1234
- Genesis Bank
1102 Stadium Drive, Indianapolis, IN 46202
(800) 804-6703
- HemaStem Therapeutics
4263 Sherwoodtowne Blvd, Suite 303, Mississauga, Ontario L4Z 1Y5
(800) 203-7349
- LifebankUSA (A Celgene Company)
45 Horsehill Road, Cedar Knolls, NJ 07927
(877) 543-3226
- LifeLine Cryogenics
Health Sciences Building, 1275 Summer Street, Site 204, Stamford CT
(203) 967-CRYO
- MAZE Labs
2975 Westchester Avenue, G-03, Purchase, New York 10577
(914) 683-0000
- National Children's Leukemia Foundation
7316 Avenue U, Brooklyn, NY 11234
(718) 251-1222
- NeoCells
36430 US Highway 19 N, Palm Harbor, FL 34684
(888) 50-CELLS
- Newborn Blood Banking, Inc.
P.O. Box 270067, Tampa, Florida 33688
(888) 948-2673
- New England Cord Blood Bank
153 Needham Street, Newton, MA 02464
(888) 700-2673
- Regenerative Medicine Institute (RMI)
California
(877) 844-7379
- Securacell
4240 Munson St. NW, Suite A, Canton, Ohio 44718
(866)-836-CELL
- Stembanc
100 Seventh Avenue, Chardon, Ohio 44024
(877) 836-2262
- StemCyte Family
400 Rolyn Place, Arcadia, CA 91007
(866) 389-4659
- Viacord
245 First Street, Cambridge, MA 02142
(866) 668-4895
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