About Cord Blood:

Cord blood, which is also called "placental blood," is the blood that remains in the umbilical cord and placenta following birth and after the cord is cut. Cord blood is routinely discarded with the placenta and umbilical cord.

Your baby's umbilical cord blood is a valuable source of stem cells, which are genetically unique to your baby and family.

About Stem Cell:

Stem cells are the body's "master" cells because they create all other tissues, organs, and systems in the body. The stem cells found in cord blood are the building blocks of your blood and immune system and most readily reproduce into:

Red Blood Cells - which carry oxygen to all the cells in the body
White Blood Cells - which fight infection
Platelets - which aid in clotting in the event of injury

There are three sources where stem cells are commonly found, they are:

Bone Marrow
Peripheral Blood (the blood that circulates through your body)
Umbilical Cord Blood

The ability of cord blood stem cells to differentiate, or change into other types of cells in the body is a new discovery that holds significant promise for improving the treatment of some of the most common diseases such as heart disease, stroke, and Alzheimer's.

Today, stem cell therapy is a major breakthrough in regenerative medical research. Stem cells have the potential to help cure many life-threatening ailments like leukemia, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, anemia, inherited disorders and all other deficiencies of the immune system. Lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, liver disorders and heart ailments can also be treated with stem cells.

The Advantage
Cord blood stem cells have many significant advantages over other sources of stem cells like bone marrow. Cord blood stem cells are:

• More tolerant of tissue mismatches

• Have a lower risk of severe graft-vs-host disease (a major complication in stem cell transplants)

• Rarely contaminated with latent viruses

Cord blood is also "privileged" or unexposed to most diseases that make bone marrow from an adult more difficult to use in transplantation.

More importantly, cord blood from your baby is a perfect match for your child, if it ever should be needed, and has a 1 - in - 4 chance of matching a current or future sibling. Childbirth is thus a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to collect and preserve these stem cells and harness what is otherwise discarded as bio-medical waste.

So, when you preserve your baby's cord blood stem cells, you ensure your family the gift of life.

Processing Cord Blood
the stem cells are separated from the red blood cells and plasma instead of freezing the blood as a whole. This method produces cells with greater viability and is preferred by Physicians, because it minimizes the risk of blood type (ABO) incompatibility later.

Once the stem cells are separated from the red blood cells and plasma, they are placed in 5ml cryovials in preparation for freezing and storage. The designated Cord Blood registry uses a small amount of your baby's own plasma and Dimethyl Sulfoxide (DMSO) to protect the cells. The DMSO solution can be spun out of the cell in the future, when it is needed for transplant.

Your baby's cord blood sample is stored in multiple cryovials. On an average, we store cryovials of each cord blood sample. This provides the families a significant benefit in the future, since the cells may be used for more than one treatment.

Each vial is bar coded and clearly marked with: Cord Blood Identifying Number, Account Number, Date of Processing and Contents. Each vial is individually wrapped using a cryo sheathing to protect against cross-contamination. Your vials then enter the first stage of the cryopreservation, with a slow-rate introduction to the freezing process. Most of the present day Cord Blood Registry uses this technique of slow-rate introduction to ensure the safety of the cells. The progression to lower and lower temperatures keeps the cells from going into shock from the extreme negative temperature of -196° Celsius.

Screening
Your cord blood sample is tested for bacterial and fungal infections when it arrives at the Cord Blood Registry lab. All expectant mothers will be sending 2 vials of blood (included in the kit) with the baby's cord blood sample, to facilitate testing the blood for infectious disease markers. This is a mandatory requirement of cord blood banking regulations.

Storage
Your baby's cells are secure at Cord Blood Registry state-of-the-art storage facility, which is monitored 24 hours a day with a high-tech alarm system and back-up generators. Our computer system constantly monitors and tracks your vials at all times. You can rest assured that your baby's cord blood is in the hands of Cord Blood Registry's experienced laboratory and cellular storage personnel.

Cord blood stem cells are preferred over bone marrow stem cells (for transplantation) and have already been used to treat numerous types of malignancies including certain kinds of leukemia, Hodgkin's disease and other types of lymphoma. It has also been used for the treatment of a variety of anemia, inherited metabolic disorders and deficiencies of the immune system.