What Diseases Does Cord Blood Treat

Cord blood is blood that can be extracted from the placenta after it is expelled. Cord blood is rich in stem cells and can be used to treat diseases both in the newborn and in the mother. Because cord blood collection does not pose any risk to the newborn, it is an accepted way of acquiring cells for use later. Cord blood can be used to treat over 40 diseases.

Identification

Umbilical cord blood is blood that is within the umbilical cord that returns to the newborn's circulation if the cord is not clamped. The umbilical cord naturally clamps when exposed to cold air when an internal substance, called Wharton's jelly, clamps off the umbilical arteries and veins. Some forms of birth, including water birth and other procedures that are designed to delay this clamping allow for additional circulation of umbilical cord blood.

Significance

Cord blood can be extracted from the umbilical cord via premature clamping of the cord after the placenta is expelled. At this point, the umbilical blood can be harvested and extracted from the umbilical cord. Cord blood can either be maintained in a private blood blank or can be donated to public blood banks. For a private blood bank, there is a cost of approximately $2,000 for the collection and $125 per year for the storage of the blood. Most public cord blood banks charge no fee.

Features

Cord blood is rich in stem cells and other hematopoeitic cells. These are cells that have the ability to grow and differentiate into many other types of cells, especially blood cells. As a result, these cells can be used to treat certain cellular disorders in the newborn and, on occasion, siblings. One of the advantages of using cord blood to treat diseases is that a perfect match is not required, since the immune cells present in the blood are less likely to cause graft-versus-host disease (GVHD).

Benefits

Cord blood can be used to treat a variety of diseases. It can be used for diseases of the bone marrow including certain kinds of anemia and problems with blood clotting. It can also be used for immune disorders, particularly certain ones in which the immune system is compromised by the lack of certain kinds of blood cells. Cord blood can also be given to people with certain kinds of cancers, including leukemia, and for certain metabolic disorders.

Warning

One of the disadvantages of using cord blood is that it takes blood away from a newborn. There are also slight risks to the recipient of cord blood that he could inherit rare genetic diseases of the blood or immune system. There is also some controversy about the use of private cord blood banks---the odds that any individual will have a need for stem cell treatment is very low, around 1 in 400, and the cost of banking this blood can be seen as unnecessary. For cord blood to gain prominence as a medical treatment, large public banks need to be established, giving all patients the option of being treated with cord blood.