Benefits of Cord Tissue and Cord Blood Banking

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Benefits of Cord Blood

Choosing to bank your newborn’s stem cells is an important decision that may safeguard your family’s future health. The stem cells found in both cord blood and cord tissue are at the forefront of regenerative medicine research investigating their potential to treat a wide range of diseases, including neurological, autoimmune, cardiovascular, and orthopedic conditions, offering hope for future therapies. The stem cells found in cord blood are currently used in transplant medicine for blood cancers, blood disorders, inherited metabolic conditions, and immune disorders. Many of the diseases treated with cord blood today are genetic and require related (sibling) or unrelated donor cells. In these cases, physicians often seek a sibling match first, as related donor transplants are statistically associated with better clinical outcomes compared to unrelated donors.^⁷¹

Cord blood has certain advantages over other stem cell sources, including:

Easy to collect

Cord blood collection is performed immediately following the cutting of the cord with no pain or risk for the mother or baby.

Better matching

For stem cells to be successfully transplanted, they must be a match for the receiver. Matched stem cells can be found in some public databases, but there is no guarantee. Genetically related stem cells from a blood-related family member, such as a sibling, more often result in a successful transplant. ⁷¹

siblings

When banking cord blood, it is important to understand how these stem cells can potentially be used within in your family. Cord blood stem cells collected at birth offer significant compatibility for other family members:

Siblings share a 25 percent chance of being a perfect match and a 50 percent chance of being a partial match. Altogether, this gives siblings a 75 percent chance of being a possible match.
Since each parent provides markers used in matching, parents have a 100 percent chance of being a partial match.

This means a child’s cord blood stem cells could one day be used to help his or her sibling, mother, or father. It is important to note that while cord blood stored at birth is a 100% match for the child, in the case of most diseases, utilizing cells from a donor, whether a related or unrelated individual, is required.

Less risk of post-transplant complications

In addition to being better accepted entirely by the body, cord blood stem cells have a significantly reduced risk of post-transplant graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). GVHD is when the transplanted cells attack the body. It’s a major complication of stem cell transplants. The risk of GVHD varies based on the donor-recipient relationship. According to the National Institute of Health:

Identical twins: very low chance of suffering from GVHD
Blood-related family members: 35%–45% chance of GVHD
Unrelated: 60%–80% chance of GVHD

Part of this better acceptance by the body is because cord blood stem cells have rarely been contaminated with latent viruses.⁷⁹ The same is not true for stem cells from other sources. For this reason, cord blood stem cells have been dubbed “privileged” because they haven’t been exposed to any diseases.

Benefits of Cord Tissue

Cord tissue stem cells share some benefits with cord blood stem cells and offer unique advantages of their own. These include the ability to inhibit inflammation following tissue damage, to secrete growth factors that aid in tissue repair, and to differentiate into various cell types found in your nervous system, sensory organs, circulatory tissues, skin, bone, cartilage, and more.⁷⁷,⁸⁰ Cord tissue stem cells show promise in repairing tissues in these areas. Here are some more benefits of cord tissue:

Young Cells

The stem cells found in cord tissue are at their peak ability to form other new stem cells. They also have a greater capacity to become one of many cell types. These abilities slow as the body ages. The immaturity of cells is also associated with a lower risk of an immune response, which can lead to chronic and even deadly complications.

Higher Yield

The number of stem cells found in the cord tissue can be anywhere from three times to 14 times as many as in other sources.

More Prolific

Cord tissue stem cells reproduce to a greater degree compared to similar cells from other sources. ⁸³

Straight to the Source

Cord tissue stem cells have the ability to migrate directly to sites of physical harm or damage.

They're easy to collect

As with cord blood, cord tissue is easy to collect. After the cord blood is extracted, the doctor removes a few inches of the umbilical cord for cryopreservation. There is no pain or risk for the baby or the mother.

Get Started

While cord blood stored at birth is a 100% match for the child, for most diseases currently treated with cord blood, utilizing cells from a donor, whether related or unrelated, is required.

In order to preserve more types and quantity of umbilical cord stem cells and to maximize possible future health options, Cryo-Cell’s umbilical cord tissue service provides expectant families with the opportunity to cryogenically store their newborn’s umbilical cord tissue cells contained within substantially intact cord tissue. Should umbilical cord tissue cells be considered for potential utilization in a future therapeutic application, further laboratory processing will be necessary. Regarding umbilical cord tissue, all private blood banks’ activities for New York State residents are limited to collection, processing, and long-term storage of umbilical cord tissue stem cells. The possession of a New York State license for such collection, processing and long-term storage does not indicate approval or endorsement of possible future uses or future suitability of these cells.

The Benefits of Banking