Thousands of families are banking their newborns' cord blood, enabling the preservation of these precious stem cells for later use in the many developing applications of stem cell technology.
Cord blood is a sample of blood taken from a newborn baby's umbilical cord. It is a rich source of stem cells, which have been used in the treatment of over 80 diseases, including leukemia, lymphoma and anemia. The most common disease category has been leukemia. The next largest group is inherited diseases (of red blood cells, the immune system and certain metabolic abnormalities.) Patients with lymphoma, myelodysplasia and severe aplastic anemia have also been successfully transplanted with cord blood.[1] Parents may choose to bank their newborn's cord blood against the possibility that it will be useful in the future, should the child or a related family member fall victim to a disease that is treatable by cord blood stem cells.[2]
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