Cord blood contains:
hematopoietic stem cells, which are blood cells, which are not considered as embryonic stem cells, which in terms of medical ethics and the regulatory status gives them more open than if s' acting in cells of the embryo itself.
Mésenchiques stem cells, which are tissue cells;
These cells are similar to those found in bone marrow, and have been used successfully in some degenerative diseases of the spinal cord.
Collection for therapeutic or research
Cord blood of mice was one of the first used to search its components and its benefits. Since then, cord blood is collected after the birth of many children in a growing number of countries.
Cord blood is collected and analyzed to quantify the number of white cells and stem cells it contains. If it meets certain conditions (depending on countries and changes in legislation), the cord blood is stored for use stem cells it contains. In France about 30% of cords meet these criteria and are retained. Parents can donate cord blood to a public bank of cord blood so that it can be used to save the life of a child or an adult mainly in certain cancers.
In some countries, it can also be set in a private bank , private banking offering to the family, against a sum of money, to freeze and store their child's cord (not authorized in France but a bill mentions this possibility and causes severe controversy, particularly around the following issues:
Traffic unethical aspects of life or human cells
risks of abuse-related costs of conservation
strong doubts about the medical value of autologous transplantation in the case of treating diseases that we want here, because
the probability of using this cord blood donor in the family is less than 0.04%;
it is often necessary for this type of transplant two cords to get a useful amount of cells
if none of the medical expert does not deny the interest of the allograft in a patient who brings elements of the immune system of a healthy donor, the graft autologous cord blood is generally considered a priori useless, even dangerous for recipient.
For example, in leukemia cases, diseased cells can be reinoculated to the recipient, and we know that many leukemias are initiated before birth. There is no scientific basis to justify the autologous graft.
