Cord Blood Banking –Banking OR Bioinsurance…??????
Stem Cell Therapy breaks new ground and stem cells derived from the umbilical cord blood are proving to be such a boon to stem cell therapy, it is but natural that the prospect of preservation of umbilical cord blood is gaining momentum. Thus, so called, umbilical cord blood banking is being touted as insurance for life. Storage of the stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood means one can preserve and use genetically matched stem cells on hand, in case the child or someone else in the family suffers from a treatable blood disorder or needs a bone marrow transplant. There is a 25% genetic match between the siblings and parents, which proves to be the most alluring prospect for expectant couples to bank their child’s cord blood (thus ultimately their stem cells). The use of these stem cells more or less ensures absence of graft versus host reaction, which is a huge drawback in cases of organ transplantation. In India, there are approximately 72000 births daily, which results in discarding 72000 umbilical cords a day. The storage of stem cell rich blood derived from these umbilical cords can prove to be the best possible insurance against life threatening diseases, report researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the Center for Regenerative Medicine in Barcelona, Spain. “Cord blood stem cells could serve as a safe, “ready-to-use” source for the generation of iPS cells, since they are easily accessible, immunologically immature and quick to return to an embryonic stem cell-like state,” says Juan-Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte, Ph.D., a professor in the Salk’s Gene Expression Laboratory. Worldwide, there are already more than 400,000 cord blood units banked along with immunological information. Due to their early origin, cells found in umbilical cord blood contain a minimal number of somatic mutations and possess the immunological immaturity of newborn cells, allowing the HLA donor-recipient match to be less than perfect without the risk of immune rejection of the transplant .
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