On a video published by Seattle Cancer Care discusses how cord blood can save lives. The video features Dr. Colleen Delaney, who talks about the stem cells found in umbilical cord blood and the diseases that can be treated with cord blood stem cells.

The most common stem cells found in umbilical cord blood are “blood forming” stem cells, called hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). HSCs are capable of creating new blood cells.  The HSCs in cord blood are essentially the same as the HSCs found in bone marrow, with a couple of key differences.

One key difference is that the HSCs from umbilical cord blood are very young and more “immunologically naive” — which means they are less likely to be rejected by the recipient’s immune system. Doctors don’t have to match the cord blood donor as strictly to the recipient as they have to for bone marrow transplants. 

This is often how cord blood can save lives — by being usable in situations where a compatible bone marrow donor cannot be found. Dr Delaney suggests that a cord blood donor can be found for 99% of patients who can’t otherwise find a donor.

The chances of graft vs host disease, where the donor’s immune cells fight with the recipient’s cells, is also less likely with the young HSCs from umbilical cord blood.

The public was first made aware of how cord blood can save lives in 1988, when a boy was cured of fanconi anaemia after receiving a cord blood transplant from his sibling. Prior to this time, cord blood was often discarded as medical waste.

The downside of cord blood transplants is that there are usually less stem cells in each blood unit. Thankfully, researchers have managed to coax umbilical cord blood HSCs to propagate before being used in a transplant.  With dozens of new research projects involving cord blood stem cells being announced each month, treatments are expected to greatly increase in coming years.

Source: Cord Blood Transplants

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