Cord Blood Research

Stored cord stem cells can be used in research, if a unit does not enough blood forming cells to be used in a transplant. Through this type of research it has been determined that there are conditions that are improved by autologous cord stem cell donation. Two such conditions are diabetes and cerebral palsy.

Many people believe that extracting stem cells from human embryos is unethical, so the fact that stem cells can be extracted from umbilical cord blood is a welcome discovery. The ethical consideration of taking umbilical cord blood is whether or not it deprives the new born of circulating blood volume. That is one reason pediatricians discourage a pay to store system.

Research shows that human umbilical cord blood cells are very rich in stem cells and progenitor cells. There has been progress on uses for these stem cells in our search for health and improved life span. Diabetes research is promising as well as research on other diseases.

Cord stem cell research and umbilical blood research are reasons to promote public banking of umbilical blood. It is up to the parents, along with the doctor, to make the decisions about banking umbilical cord blood. The field of stem cell research is benefiting from such donations.