What has been proven so far about cord blood?

What has been proven about cord blood so far? Has it really cured people with sickle cell anemia (banana-shaped red cell found in the blood of an individual having sickle cell anemia), leukemia and other immune system diseases? Or is all this just hype for doctors and cord blood banks to make a lot of money?

It has been proved over and over again, that cord blood stem cell transplants in patients suffering from blood and immune system disorders have been highly successful. Cord blood stem cells are a valuable alternative source of hematopoietic stem cells and can be transplanted without acute side effects in patients with cancers. Allogenic (from siblings) cord blood transplants have also been proven to be highly successful.

Successful transplants of cord blood stem cells have been done in diseases such as:

  • Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia,
  • Acute Myeloblastic Leukaemia,
  • Adrenoleukodystrophy, Blackfan-Diamond,
  • Cancer-miscellaneous,
  • Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia,
  • Chronic Lymphocytic leukaemia,
  • Fanconi’s Anaemia,
  • Genetic disorders - miscellaneous,
  • Hurler’s Syndrome,
  • Immune deficiency-Miscellaneous,
  • Krabbe’s disease,
  • Lymphomas,
  • Myelodysplastic Syndrome,
  • Mucolipopolysaccharide deficiency,
  • Osteopetrosis Syndrome,
  • Severe Aplastic Anaemia,
  • Severe Combined Immunodeficiency Disease,
  • Storage disorders,
  • Thalassaemia,
  • Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome

It has been reported that cord blood stem cells, proliferate faster than bone marrow stem cells and adult stem cells. It has also been proved that cord blood stem cells, do not trigger immune reactions in the body, like bone marrow stem cells. The cord blood stem cells do not have mature immune reaction cells, like the bone marrow stem cells and hence they do not attack the body’s own cells.

The number of Cord blood stem cells can also be increased in laboratory conditions. A team of bioengineers in the University of Toronto have developed a methodology of increasing the yield of stem cells from the umbilical cord blood. These scientists have also discovered that it is possible to remove non stem cells from the cord blood so that the stem cells can grow better and faster. This has broadened the therapeutic use of the cord blood stem cell. Since the umbilical cord blood yield in normally only sufficient to treat a child and not an adult, this new discovery will enable scientist grow stem cells and increase the volume of availability for treatment of adults. The results of this research were published in the October issue of Experimental Hematology.

The cord blood stem cell research is an ongoing one. Newer discoveries are being made and clinical tests are being conducted, to prove the efficacy of the treatment process. More than 80 clinical trials have been registered with the FDA during 2007. It is expected that a larger number of diseases will be treated with umbilical cord blood. It also has a great potential in cloning of organs for organ transplant, as cord blood cells have the potential to multiply and form other cells.