Cord Blood Storage
Cord Blood Storage
Cord blood storage is the storage of blood contained within the umbilical cord from mothers and newborn babies. Cord blood is a newfound source of stem cells that treat many kinds of different diseases and sicknesses. With this new found technology, it is imperative that we find new and different ways of doing cord blood storage.
Cord blood storage gives scientists and doctors a way of saving umbilical cord blood to use on patients with diseases such as leukemia and brain tumors.
Before cord blood storage and cord blood storage banks, doctors had to rely on bone marrow transplants because that was the only source of stem cells that exist within the human body.
This was always a problem in the past as the list of patients needing the stem cell transplants was always much larger then the list of available donors.
Cord blood is seen as a savior for many medical reasons and the ability to store cord blood is ever more important in the treatment of these diseases. When cord blood is stored, and stored properly, it can be easily used to treat these patients with these awful diseases.
Cord blood is a small amount of blood contained in the umbilical cord and placenta of a new born baby and mother. That cord blood is rich in blood forming cells also known as stem cells.
When a person/parent wants to provide storage for the cord blood, it is collected, tested for different conditions and then it is processed, tested for any infection or blood related diseases and moved to special cryogenic storage centers where the cord blood is stored for up to eight to ten years.
Cord blood has to meet many eligibility requirements for it to be used in transplantation of stem cells to patients needing it. Special chemicals are then added to the cord blood in preparation of cryogenic storage of the cord blood where it can be held for long periods of time and stored at a very low temperature.
Cord blood storage involves the preservation of mainly the white blood cells of the cord blood, which are very important when it comes to stem cell transplants.
Cord blood storage banks are life saving for people that have certain diseases. Stem cells treat patients with diseases that are treatable with stem cells.
Cord blood storage bank companies are growing more popular every year as more and more diseases and other afflictions are being found to be treatable with stem cells.
Cord blood storage also means great things to the immediate family of the cord blood donors. And that is where private cord blood storage bank facilities come in. They store the cord blood for use within the family of the donor should any heath issues arise that are treatable with cord blood stem cells.
There are also public cord blood storage facilities where cord blood can be donated and stored for public use in case of an immediate need by anyone in the general public who needs it.
Since cord blood has been discovered to cure so many diseases that are related to stem cells, the storage of cord blood is ever important to human preservation and perseverance.