Why Should Parents Preserve Umbilical Blood?

By Author: Jackson daren
Total Articles: 80
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A series questions can arise in pregnancy which is, why should parents preserve the umbilical cord blood? It is expensive; it is against the ethical groups and many other factors. Few scientists think that there can be complication after the transplantation. The patient may be affected with the germ, Graft Versus Host Disease (commonly known as GVHD). The negative use of cord blood cell may vary from mild to severe. The cord blood collected does not cater to an adult as abundant amount of the blood cannot be collected through the umbilical cord. Further, it takes a little longer time for the new cells to be generated.

Despite of all facts, it is always advisable to store the umbilical cord blood. This blood is rich in stem cells. The undifferentiated cells which can differentiate into specialized cell types are called stem cells. Stem cells can be broadly divided into two parts, embryo stem cells and adult stem cells. Further, there are majorly three types of stem cells; they are Hematopoietic stem cells, Mesenchymal stem cells and Endothelial stem ...
... cells. In common language the stem cells are also known as the building blocks of the body. This umbilical cord blood cell can cure more than 70 types of fatal diseases. There has been more than 4000 umbilical cord blood transplant in the last ten years. Previously it was believed that bone marrow and the peripheral blood are the only two sources of stem cells. But this recent invention has proved that the blood in the umbilical cord is rich in stem cells to. The stem cells helps to produce white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets too. The moment the baby is born, the cord blood used to be thrown away. But now expecting parents need to inform the medical centers on the 34th week of the pregnancy. The health centers make all the arrangements to collect the blood. The blood needs to be collected within 10 minutes from the delivery. At least 75 ml of blood from the umbilical cord is required. Once the blood is collected after testing it, several chemical are added to preserve it. Further, the blood may be stored in a public or a private bank, depending on the parent's choice. By preserving the cord blood parent assure a safe life for their kids.

Cord blood stem cell transplantation was first used for a 5 years old kid. In the year 1988, this child was affected by Fanconi's anemia. It is when the child's sibling's cord blood was used. Since then the use of the cord blood cell has been started. Apart from providing medical benefits stem cells helps in therapeutic cloning and regenerative medicines. It acts as a medicine for diseases like Parkinson's diseases, Schizophrenia, Alzheimer's diseases, Cancer, Spinal Cord injury, diabetes and many more. With the help of stem cells few organs and limbs can be developed in labs and then used for transplantation. Many drugs are been tested on the stem cells and not on animals or human testers. Stem cells can detect the power of the drugs and assist to detect the effect of the same of humans. Stem cells have proved fatal in the study of abnormal birth.

About the Author:

This article is written by Jackson daren this is having topics on umbilical cord blood, umbilical cord blood transplant, Cord blood stem cell and many more. For more: http://cryocell.wordpress.com/