1. Harvesting umbilical blood poses no risk to either mother or child. Conversely, a bone marrow donor must undergo anesthesia and is exposed to the risk of infection.
2. Umbilical blood can be stored in cryogenic freezers, ready for use as soon as it is needed, whereas the process of contacting and testing donors listed in a bone marrow registry takes weeks to months. Umbilical blood units are stored and ready to use. It can take two months or more to find an unrelated bone marrow donor. An umbilical blood unit can be selected and delivered to the transplant center in less than a week. Your doctor may choose cord blood if you need a transplant quickly. This factor alone makes umbilical blood banking much more appealing.
3. The stem cells in umbilical blood are more primitive than those in bone marrow. As such, they carry much lower incidence of graft versus host disease (GVHD). Thus, cord blood transplants do not require a "perfect match" between the donor and the patient. Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is a common complication after an allogeneic transplant. GVHD can range from mild to life-threatening. Studies have found that after a cord blood transplant, fewer patients get GVHD than after bone marrow transplants. Patients in the studies who did get GVHD after a cord blood transplant tended to get less severe cases.
4. A close match between the patient and the donor or umbilical blood unit can improve a patient's outcome after transplant. Even though a closely matched cord blood unit is preferred, clinical studies suggest the match do not have to be as close as is needed for bone marrow transplants. If you have an uncommon tissue type, your doctor may not find a closely matched adult bone marrow donor for you. However, a cord blood unit may be an option.
Here are the disadvantages of transplanting with umbilical blood:
1. The stem cells in cord blood are more primitive than those in bone marrow, and because of this the engraftment process takes longer with cord blood. During this time, the patient is vulnerable to infection for a longer period.
2. A typical umbilical blood harvest only contains enough stem cells to transplant a large child or small adult (weighing approx. 100 pounds). Researchers are developing methods of transplanting adults with cord blood, and this may not be a factor in the near future. When this process is common, cord blood banking will likely become standard procedure after birth.
As statistics render evidence of more and more positive outcomes of cord blood transplants, a greater importance is now being placed on cord blood donation. Blood and immune system related diseases were the preliminary ailments in which cord blood cell treatment was started. Now the transplant is a tool to combat more than seventy diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, spinal cord injuries, some forms of blindness and other diseases that have originated from the bone marrow.
Statistics have published that nearly 110,000 people are been diagnosed with these types of diseases each year in the United States. Because of the painful procedures and other obstacles associated with bone marrow transplants, approximately 15,000 people discard the transplant treatment that they require be recover. Assiduous cord blood research trials are being made to extract further healing benefits latent in the umbilical cords of babies and put this to use in curing other severe diseases.
Why Cord blood Transplants Are Better Alternatives To Bone Marrow Transplants
The availability of matching donors is the main setback that bone marrow transplants patients face. There are cases when the patients even succumb to the disease while waiting for the ideal match. To further the list of disadvantages, the bone marrow collection procedure is quite painful and it takes a long time to see any positive result of bone marrow treatment.
Cord blood transplant treatments have shown more benefits than bone marrow transplant treatments, these are:
Cord blood cells show greater chances of HLA matching between donors and patients.
Availability of umbilical stem cells makes it more accessible in need of transplants than bone marrow stem cells. The patient no longer needs to wait for a donor, he can be his own donor if his cord blood had been preserved after his birth.
Since the stem cells found in umbilical cords are the most primitive cells, therefore, when transplanted to the patients, these bring about lesser threat for graft-versus-host-disease or GVRD which is a probable risk involved in bone marrow transplant.
The harvesting and collecting process entails zero pain and risk for the donor, whereas, bone marrow collection process causes intense pain to both donor and user.
Cord blood Today
New discoveries are showing more techniques of new ways of cord blood transplant. Medical practitioners have gone an extra mile now to even expand the stem cells where there is insufficiency of stem cells. Today, more than seventy diseases can be cured by such transplants. Here are some of the diseases, which can be treated with these transplants.
Samples of twin pregnancies were generally rejected due the low availability of cells. But, now private banks are looking forward to expand donated cord blood stem cell, received from twin pregnancies and make use of these in future transplants.
Pre implantation genetic diagnosis is another result of cord blood research, made by John Wagner, M.D. and professor of Department of Pediatrics housed in the University of Minnesota. This pre implantation technique is assumed to be useful for treating patients suffering from Fanconi Anemia, Thalassemia, sickle cell disease, Hurlers syndrome and an array of other genetically transferable diseases.
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