Source: The Atlantic
Previously, umbilical cord blood was often discarded as medical waste and had no official use. But now once a baby is delivered, the cord blood is collected and used for many forms of research and studies to develop better treatments and cures for blood and genetic diseases. Cord blood is often used to treat a sibling who has a blood or stem cell abnormality but can also be used as a part of stem cell and blood cell research to create treatments in the future.
What is cord blood?
Cord blood is blood that remains in the placenta and found inside of an umbilical cord once a baby is born. That blood contains very powerful hematopoietic stem cells, which are stem cells that are involved in the formation of blood cells that typical human blood does not, which can help develop regenerative medicine for specific stem cell diseases, blood diseases, and genetic diseases like cancers.
What are the uses for cord blood?
There are many new and developing uses for cord blood that have become a new method of treatment for many genetic malformations and blood diseases. A successful cord blood transplant could pave the way to strengthening the immune system and blood by replacing the diseased blood cells with new, healthy ones that also contain stem cells. Those stem cells have the power to treat diseases such as cancers, red blood cell disorders, specific immunodeficiencies, diseases of the bone marrow, metabolic deficiencies, and many more. Transplanting this blood from an umbilical cord into a sick person’s blood stream will cause the cord blood to take over the diseased blood due to the strength and amount of stem cells it possesses. Cord blood research is underway and scientists are aiming to find many more uses for cord blood as well as many more diseases that have the potential to be treated by this procedure.
How does cord blood offer treatment?
Hematopoietic stem cells are blood-forming cells found in everyone’s blood and bone marrow. These cells change into red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets which are all components your body needs to stay healthy. However, for patients with bone marrow and blood diseases and cancers, this process doesn’t work properly. Umbilical cord blood offers a potential source of the tissue that is needed to replace the diseased tissue during a cord blood transplant. Doing this procedure can slowly replace all of the sick blood cells with healthy ones in a process similar to natural selection. All of the sick cells will slowly die off as the new ones take over and strengthen the immune system or kill off the cancer. Cord blood from a sibling is twice as efficient and successful than donor blood in healing these types of diseases. However, donor blood is still better than most other forms of treatment.
How can you donate cord blood to help others?
After a baby is born, in order to donate the blood, the umbilical cord blood is collected and frozen to preserve the stem cells present. If a person has compromised stem cells they cannot use their own blood to replace the sick blood. Parents can choose to store their baby's blood in a public or private blood. A private bank will store the cord blood for a family’s future use, like if they would like to use it for a future child who may have some type of illness. Or parents will donate the cord blood to a public bank so that doctors can use it for patients who need a hematopoietic stem cell transplant. A child’s doctor will determine when it is necessary to obtain the cord blood either from the family’s private bank or the public bank. It is very important that the blood type is tested to prevent stem cell rejection and decrease rates of future infection. The blood along with a plethora of anti-rejection and other types of medication will ensure that a person continues to remain healthy.
This procedure is becoming a more common solution to various blood and genetic diseases that require a stronger immune system. This is shown by the fact that more than 25,000 transplants using umbilical cord blood have taken place worldwide. More research is occurring in order to find cures in the future. Cord blood was previously waste but now it is being used for many forms of treatments and scientists have a goal of developing other aspects of medical waste into treatments for human diseases.
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