Umbilical Cord Blood Banking - Cord Blood Stem Cell - Cord Blood Storage
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Increasingly over the last 10 years, the collection of umbilical cord blood for use in therapy of serious medical conditions has become more and more well known.
But this new medical breakthrough has many aspects to it.
Cord blood banking for example can be used as a private matter to store baby's cord blood for future use for the individual.
But cord blood donation is similar to bone marrow donation in that it is for use by any other person in need of a bone marrow transplantation.
The effectiveness of cord blood is even still being studied to see if it is any more effective than traditional bone marrow transplants.
So let's have a look at a few important aspects of cord blood banking and storage in this article.
Let's have a look at the issue of the advantages of cord blood transplants over one marrow transplants as a therapy for medical conditions.
The advantages of cord blood are these:
The cord blood transplant for the child from whom the blood has come from will be a perfect match. A perfect match is an advantage as it lessens the chance of rejection.
Cord blood is stored in cold storage in a bank and can be used as soon as it's needed. This is in contrast to waiting weeks or months to find a suitable adult bone marrow donor. In fact it is estimated that over 50% of people in the US who require a bone marrow transplant fail to find a suitable donor.
The process of collecting cord blood is relatively easily and simple. In contrast, bone marrow donation is invasive and painful.
So cord blood is taking more and more media attention as time goes on.
And the reasons for this are 1. that the advantages of cord blood transplantation and donation are becoming more well known, and 2. more people are realising that stem cells derived from cord blood samples can be used to help stem cell research without the use of embryos.
So watch out for more news and information on cord blood.
It's a medical phenomenon that is grabbing the attention of moms and dads as well as the medical world alike.
Copyright 2007 cord blood banking Storing Cord Blood