File:Placental cord blood banks 2009.jpg

Placental cord blood banks (2009)

Graph was based upon data from PMID 19581540

Reference

<pubmed>21985808</pubmed>| PMC3193706 | Indian J Med Res.

Jayesh Sheth

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Umbilical cord blood: current status & promise for the future

Indian J Med Res. 2011 Sep;134:261-9. McKenna D, Sheth J. Source Foundation for Research in Genetics & Endocrinology, Ahmedabad, India.

Abstract

Umbilical cord blood (UCB) has been shown to be a suitable source of haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) for haematopoietic reconstitution. An increase in the number of UCB transplants indicates an expansion of utility in a broad spectrum of disease conditions. Along with the advantages, UCB also has limitations, and hence several investigators are working to further optimize UCB for this use. Beyond haematopoietic transplantation, additional potential applications of UCB include immunotherapy, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. UCB banking has improved with time largely due to involvement of professional organizations and their published standards. However, accreditation of these organizations remains voluntary, and in India three of ten banks are public with the remaining being private. Only one public and one private bank are American Association of Blood Banks (AABB) accredited in India. Government agencies need to provide regulatory and safety oversight, which is lacking in serveral countries. Public policy regarding UCB is in its infancy throughout most of the world. Ethical issues, including access to UCB banking and use as therapy for diseases other than haematological and metabolic disorders are in the early phase of trials and remain speculative.

PMID 21985808