What is Cord Blood?

Cord Blood or the Umbilical cord blood is the blood remaining in your baby's umbilical cord and placenta following birth. This part is discarded after delivery of the baby. This blood is rich in stem cells, the building blocks of the blood and immune system.

What are the stem cells?

Stem cells are the body's "master" cells that regenerate to form the cells of the different organs and systems of the body. They are considered the building blocks of blood and immune system.

What are the stem cells used for?

Today they are routinely used in fighting more than 80 childhood and adult diseases including cancers, immune deficiencies and genetic disorders.

Why are stem cells valuable?

Every year, a growing number of patients are diagnosed with diseases that can be treated by bone marrow transplantation. But more than 50 percent of these patients are unable to find a donor with matching tissue type. Therefore, using a family's member stored umbilical cord blood stem cells offer patients in need a higher probability of finding an exact or acceptable match for their transplantation needs.

Types of stem cells

Stem cells are usually of 2 types: embryonic and adult. The type of stem cell most often discussed in the news is an embryonic stem cell. During fertilization, a sperm cell unites with an egg cell, and begins to reproduce by dividing into different cells. These cells begin to arrange themselves into an outer ring of cells that enclose an inner cell mass called a blastocyst.

Researchers have collected these inner cells and discovered that they can be made to develop into many types of specialized cells in the body.

These cells from the inner cell mass contain embryonic stem cells, which is an accurate term because they do come from the first stages of an embryo. But once these cells are removed from the inner cell mass, they are not able to develop into an infant.

Because embryonic stem cells have such great potential, they are now being looked at by the international medical community as a possible cure for many diseases. For example, one promising use is to replace the damaged or missing nerve cells in patients with Parkinson's or Alzheimer's disease. It is important to understand the difference between embryonic stem cells and umbilical cord blood stem cells.