In many ways, stem cell treatment is seen as the future of human medicine. In fact, many seriously ill children and adults have already benefited from it over the recent years. Extensive investment continues to be made into clinical trials to treat cancers, burns, diabetes, heart disease, strokes and many other conditions.
It was for these reasons that many parents choose to save their baby’s cord blood stem cells following their birth. If they became seriously ill later on in life, treatment with their own stem cells could optimise the chances of recovery.
In this blog post of the week, we highlighted five of the most frequently asked questions by expecting parents about the two common types of storing cord blood stem cells ‒ the whole cord blood and volume-reduced storage.
#1: What is the difference between whole cord blood and volume-reduced storage?
Both type of storage begin by collecting the available blood from the umbilical cord. The main difference is the processing method used once the blood is received at the laboratory. Volume-reduction methods manipulate the sample to retain a proportion of one type of stem cell. In contrast, whole umbilical cord blood storage involves minimal manipulation with no separation of the blood. This optimises the number and types of stem cells stored.
#2: What is the benefit of storing whole cord blood compared to volume-reduced storage?
Umbilical cord blood contains several different types of stem cell. While storing the whole umbilical cord blood preserves all the key stem cell types and other factors, storing a volume-reduced sample preserves only one stem cell type ‒ haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). Volume-reduction removes over 80% of the cells in the sample.
#3: Is there a downside to storing whole umbilical cord blood?
There is NO downside in storing whole cord blood. You will be able to benefit from any existing future therapy that uses one of the stem cell types found in the cord blood. The fact that Cells4Life has already released samples for use proves this.
#4: Are there any treatments that will only be available to me if I store whole umbilical cord blood?
YES. The additional cell types found in cord blood allow you to take full advantage of any existing or future therapeutic developments. These cell types including mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and very small embryonic-like stem cells (VSELs) will prove to be critical for certain treatments such as tissue reconstruction and regeneration, and are important for successful engraftment, for the treatment of blood disorders today.
#5: Is there an upside to storing volume-reduced stem cells?
Volume-reduced stem cell storage was invented to reduce the cost of storage for public stem cell banks and the treatment of blood disorders. It has been adopted by most commercial stem cell banks for this reason. However, because of what the method discards, volume-reduced storage means that your child may not be able to take advantage of all therapeutic developments. Even so, it does provide a more economical option.
We hope this information will assist you in deciding about which type of storage you should choose for saving your baby’s cord blood.
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Cells4Life offers Platinum and Gold services to give you maximum choice when it comes to safeguarding the health of your child.
Our Platinum service (whole cord blood storage) cryopreserves every stem cell type found in cord blood. This means that you and your family will have the full range of stem cells available to you for future medical breakthroughs in this rapidly changing field of medicine. Cells4Life are the only company in the Middle East to offer this superior service. Learn more about Cells4Life Platinum service
Our Gold service (volume-reduced storage) is similar to what many other storage providers in the Middle East offer, but with many very important benefits. This service focuses on extracting the maximum number of haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) from the umbilical cord blood. Cells4Life’s automated, computer-controlled processing system delivers the highest published cell recovery rates in the industry: 96%. Other processing methods have been shown to recover only 81% of cells. Learn more about Cells4Life Gold service
If you have any other questions about these two types of cord blood storage, please don’t hesitate to contact us on +971 4 3116613 or send us an email.
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