How Can Cord Blood Banks Ensure a Safer Future?
Cord blood is the blood left out in the umbilical cord and placenta after the birth of a baby. The process of harvesting, freezing, and banking umbilical blood is called cord blood banking. This blood contains all components of normal human blood like red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. Apart from all these components, it also consists of hematopoietic stem cells that can save many lives. The cord blood and tissue banking is not immediately advantageous for the baby after birth but can prove beneficial in the future.
How to bank the cord blood of your baby?
If you want to undergo the cord blood and tissue banking process, you must contact a donation bank before your delivery. The procedure of banking cord blood is pain-free for both the baby and the mother. Also, it will not affect your labor or delivery. Whether your baby is born naturally or via a C-section, you can opt-in both cases.
Blood gets collected at the same time as the cord is detached. Then, the doctors develop the banked blood using processing agents. Lastly, it is slowly lowered to a specific temperature and preserved. You can store this blood in a public bank for free. Saving blood in a private bank can cost an initial amount of two thousand dollars and then nearly a hundred dollars yearly up to a particular period. The usefulness of paying this high cost can be phenomenal.
How does Cord Blood and Tissue Banking Ensure a Safer Future for your child?
Cord blood is a lifesaver as it can cure diseases like anemia, leukemia, immune system disorders, and certain cancers. It contains stem cells that are believed to morph into all kinds of blood cells. We can also find stem cells in bone marrow but those are not useful in all cases. Since the bone marrow has to get matched with the patient, this time-consuming process can impact the patient badly. On the other hand, there are a few chances that somebody’s body will reject cord blood. The most beneficial aspect is that since doctors bank this blood from a newborn, it is free from any infection.
If you donate your baby’s cord blood to a public bank, it will be accessible to anyone in need. But, if you choose a private bank for banking, they will reserve this blood just for your family use. Your baby or someone in your family might need a stem cell transplant in the future. Finding a stem cell match from the public database is very difficult. In most cases, our bodies reject the stem cells of somebody not in our blood relation. Genetically related stem cells can be a perfect match in such situations. Your baby’s stem cells can be a 75% perfect match for transplant for siblings and a 100% match to the parents.
A chief complication after stem cell transplant can be GVHD. GVHD is a graft-versus-host-disease, and it attacks the body after transplant. Whether or not a patient will suffer from GSVD depends entirely on the donor and receiver. According to the National Institute of Health, there are 65% to 55% fewer chances of getting GSVD if the donor is in blood relation to the receiver.
Cord blood is a more primitive source of hematopoietic stem cells, compared to bone marrow and peripheral blood. Doctors believe that once collected, you can store it indefinitely. If anyone in your family ever needs stem cells, you will have the preserved cord blood in hand for the treatment.
Scientists believe that there are still many undiscovered benefits of cord blood and are involved in constant studies for the same. Research to do the stem cell storage services pairing with genetic and genomic testing services is underway. Cord blood banks are becoming centers of stem cell storage and are also trying to integrate with therapeutic centers. Clinical trials to use the cord blood for treating heart diseases and diabetes are also underway.