Peace-loving Life with Cord Blood Banking

Online, February 12, 2014 (Newswire.com) - Global Industrialization is enormous and thanks to technology that is contributing. On this note, healthcare industry has evolved and is consistently progressing. There is new hope for life through medical assistance. Some of them to name a few here are, Blood donation, Polio drops, Laser treatments for small to large operations, Test tube baby, sperm donors and so forth. There is a new invent to this spectrum, cord blood stem cell preservation. What is this? Where and when is it available? It is a process of collecting the blood left in a baby's umbilical cord and placenta after birth, freezing and storing it for future medical use. This is done after the umbilical cord has been cut and is extracted from the fetal end of the cord. This process usually is done within ten minutes of a pregnant lady giving birth. This is sent to Stem Cell Bank or laboratory.

There are two types of banking system. Both private and public cord blood banks have developed in treating diseases of the blood and immune systems.

An expectant mother interested in donation contacts the Cord Blood Banking before the 34th week of pregnancy. Under Public banks category, once the blood is donated, the blood loses all identifying information of the relatives after a short period of initial testing. In such cases, families do not retrieve their own blood after it has been donated. On the other hand, Private Banks donation allows retrieving the blood to relatives for future safety. Which means it can be used for siblings and other members of the family who have a matching tissue type.

Cord blood contains progenitor cells, hematopoietic stem cells which can form red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. Cord blood stem cells are currently used in the treatment of several life-threatening diseases, and play an important role in the treatment of blood and immune system related, genetic diseases, cancers, and blood disorders. This is the result of research in science and recent studies have shown that cord blood has unique advantages over traditional bone marrow transplantation, particularly in children, and can be life saving in few cases.

Before sending to Stem Cell Banks, cord blood undergoes viral testing, and other tests like HIV and Hepatitis B and C, and tissue typing to determine Human Leukocyte Antigen type.

Stem cells are also found in blood circulation of body, fetal tissue, human embryos, muscle, hair follicles, and fat. Interestingly, stem cell from tooth the most powerful is also used in treatment of teeth and replicating themselves. New sources of stem cells are being discovered regularly.

Regarding this topic, it is important and smart to preserve both the cord blood & cord tissue stem cells to ensure that a child gets a complete cover from most of the ailments - opening doors for future research and developments.