Placenta and placental cord blood (umbilical cord blood, UCB) contains stem cells that can be harvested at birth (More? Placenta Notes). The total amout of blood that can be collected is about 90 ml, from which stem cells can be collected, typed and stored in Cord Blood Banks. Both public and private Cord Blood Banks have arisen in this area. These cells provide a resource for bone marrow replacement therapy in many diseases. "Stem cell donors are submitted to the national registries by regional donor centres. These in turn collaborate with tissue typing laboratories, that provide the HLA characteristics, the primary matching criterion for a donor and a patient." (From: Bone Marrow Donors Worldwide) |
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A useful guide (online PDF document) to stem cells was produced in a report by the National Institute of Health (NIH, USA, May 2000) Stem Cells: A Primer (note large size - 4.84 Mb) and more recently NIH has established a Stem Cell information page.
Page Links: Introduction | Some Recent Findings | Cord Blood Registries | Australia | Diseases | References | Glossary
Garbuzova-Davis S, Sanberg CD, Kuzmin-Nichols N, Willing AE, Gemma C, Bickford PC, Miller C, Rossi R, Sanberg PR. Human umbilical cord blood treatment in a mouse model of ALS: optimization of cell dose. PLoS ONE. 2008 Jun 25;3(6):e2494.
"...These results demonstrate that treatment for ALS with an appropriate dose of MNC hUCB cells may provide a neuroprotective effect for motor neurons through active involvement of these cells in modulating the host immune inflammatory system response."
Brunstein CG, Baker KS, Wagner JE. Umbilical cord blood transplantation for myeloid malignancies. Curr Opin Hematol. 2007 Mar;14(2):162-9.
"Umbilical cord blood is a valuable alternative source of hematopoietic stem cells for transplantation of patients with myeloid malignancies who need an allogeneic transplant, but lack a suitable sibling donor."
Mayor S. World's first public-private cord blood bank launched in UK. BMJ. 2007 Feb 10;334(7588):277. (More? Virgin Health Bank)
"The Virgin Health Bank will provide parents with the facility to store their child's umbilical cord blood in two portions—one as a private sample (about 80%) for the sole use of the child and his or her family and the second as a public sample (20%), available free of charge to anyone requiring stem cell transplantation."
What’s the cost? The full amount is £1,500 or £1,600
Cord blood collection statistics began in 1994 and have been increasing ever since. In January 2007, there were 254,000 cord blood units collected in worldwide registries.
Cord Blood Units Register (Data from: Bone Marrow Donors Worldwide Cord Blood Registries)
CBU Cord Blood Units
NVC Net Volume Collected of CBU Volume of the unit in milliliters; see note below.
TNC Total Nucleated Cells count of CBU The rounded number of nucleated cells in the units of 10 million.
CD34P Collected number of CD34+ cells of CBU Cell count after volume reduction; numeric value with decimal point in units of 1 million.
MONONUC Collected number of mononuclear cells of CBU The rounded number of mononuclear cells in the units of 10 million.
The list of diseases that were transplanted with cord blood include the following: 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 (From: The Sydney Cord Blood Bank)
Australia has three cord blood banks (CBBs) located in Brisbane (Queensland), Sydney (New South Wales) and Melbourne (Victoria). AusCord is the Australian national network of umbilical cord blood banks and cord blood collection centres.
Links: Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry | The Sydney Cord Blood Bank (SCBB) | Melbourne - BMDI Cord Blood Bank | Queensland Cord Blood Bank | PDF - AusCord Brochure
On August 9, 2001, at 9:00 p.m. EDT, the President announced his decision to allow Federal funds to be used for research on existing human embryonic stem cell lines as long as prior to his announcement (1) the derivation process (which commences with the removal of the inner cell mass from the blastocyst) had already been initiated and (2) the embryo from which the stem cell line was derived no longer had the possibility of development as a human being.
In addition, the President established the following criteria that must be met:
In order to facilitate research using human embryonic stem cells, the NIH is creating a Human Embryonic Stem Cell Registry that will list the human embryonic stem cell lines -- at varying stages of development -- that meet the eligibility criteria. Listed below are entities that have developed stem cell lines that meet the President's criteria and are therefore eligible for federal funding. Please click on the name of the laboratory or company for contact information.
Dartmouth ethics professor discusses promise and pitfalls of stem cell research (2005)
NIH Clinical Trials (May 2004) Launches Study of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation for Severe, Treatment-Resistant Lupus (NIAMS, May 13,2004)
A clinical therapeutic trial in the USA for hematopoietic stem cells in an autoimmune disease.
"A five-year study to see whether a therapy using transplantation of hematopoietic stem cells, blood stem cells found in bone marrow, can produce long-term remission for patients with severe, treatment-resistant systemic lupus erythematosus (or lupus), a rheumatic autoimmune disease that can affect the body's major organs. The study will include a basic research component to examine the roles of B and T cells, white blood cells in the immune system, in triggering lupus symptoms."
Read more of the NIH Press Release
Note that a May search of NIH Clinical Trials with "stem cell" found 302 study results.
Repeat search: NIH Clinical Trials with "stem cell"
Links: Reviews | Articles | Online Textbooks | Search Textbooks | Search PubMed | Glossary
Reviews
Sanchez-Ramos J. Stem cells from umbilical cord blood. Semin Reprod Med. 2006 Nov;24(5):358-69.
O'Brien TA, Tiedemann K, Vowels MR. No longer a biological waste product: umbilical cord blood. Med J Aust. 2006 Apr 17;184(8):407-10.
Brunstein CG, Wagner JE. Umbilical cord blood transplantation and banking. Annu Rev Med. 2006;57:403-17.
Saulnier N, Di Campli C, Zocco MA, Di Gioacchino G, Novi M, Gasbarrini A. From stem cell to solid organ. Bone marrow, peripheral blood or umbilical cord blood as favorable source? Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci. 2005 Nov-Dec;9(6):315-24.
Articles
Garbuzova-Davis S, Sanberg CD, Kuzmin-Nichols N, Willing AE, Gemma C, Bickford PC, Miller C, Rossi R, Sanberg PR. Human umbilical cord blood treatment in a mouse model of ALS: optimization of cell dose. PLoS ONE. 2008 Jun 25;3(6):e2494.
Brunstein CG, Baker KS, Wagner JE. Umbilical cord blood transplantation for myeloid malignancies. Curr Opin Hematol. 2007 Mar;14(2):162-9.
Rubinstein P. Why cord blood? Hum Immunol. 2006 Jun;67(6):398-404.
Search PubMed: June 2008 "cord blood stem cells" 6,416 reference articles of which 679 were reviews, this number has more than doubled since 2006.
Search PubMed Now: cord blood stem cells | cord blood bank | embryonic stem cell |
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This page introduces the topic of placental cord blood stem cells also called umbilical cord blood (UCB).
Breakthroughs in stem cell research appear frequently in the news, governments legislate about research, origin and use, community groups argue the ethics of human stem cells, individuals seek answers for fertility and disease.
With so many levels this area of embryology has become extremely complex. This current page looks only at the embryonic stage related to the origin of first stem cells which will go on to form the entire embryo.
I include links to recent news (see also Embryology News) items and sites which cover the research behind the stem cell "phenomena".
The term "stem cell" is now used widely to cover many different cells derived from both embryo and adult tissues. (More? Week 2 Stem Cells | Cloning)
Please email Dr Mark Hill if you wish to make a comment about this current project.