You’ve seen it on social media, young parents bragging about freezing their newborn’s umbilical cord like they just unlocked a cure-all. Why exactly do people save cord blood? And is it worth it?
Gone are the days when the umbilical cord was discarded at birth. Many parents today choose to save the cord blood for the future health of their child. Why? Stem cells.
The umbilical cord is loaded with stem cells that could treat blood-related disorders such as leukemia and sickle cell anemia, and some immune and metabolic disorders.
The cord provides a guaranteed match not only for you, but possibly for your extended family, as well.
Cord blood, according to some scientists, can potentially be used to cure diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, and conditions such as diabetes, as well as diseases affecting the brain, heart and spine.
But that is far into the future, so be wary of some private blood banks—where storing your child’s umbilical cord blood will cost you an arm and a leg—that make false promises.
‘Hot commodity’
With its rise in popularity—NBC called cord blood a “hot commodity”—it is now more important than ever for parents to make an informed choice.
The process of collecting cord blood takes only a few minutes and is painless for mother and baby.
The first successful human cord blood transplant (CBT) was performed in France nearly 30 years ago on a child with Fanconi anemia, a rare genetic disease resulting in impaired response to DNA damage, according to a report by the US National Center for Biotechnology Information.
Since 2013, over 600,000 umbilical cord blood units have been stored for transplantation worldwide, and more than 30,000 CBTs have been performed.
Embryonic
The stem cells in cord blood are different from embryonic stem cells. Stem cells in cord blood are young and haven’t yet learned how to attack foreign substances. That’s why it’s easier to match transplant patients with cord blood—they are less likely to reject the transfusion.
The patient’s own cells are ideal when stem cells are used to help the body repair itself. But what if the body is making the “wrong” cells, like when the illness is cancer or a genetic blood disorder?
Transplant, therefore, must come from a donor, not from the patient’s own cells, since the patient’s stem cells probably carry the same defect that caused the cancer or genetic disease.
Storage
For storage, parents have two options: Donate the cord blood to a public cord blood bank for anyone who needs it, or store it in a private cord blood bank for your family’s use. The latter can be expensive.
According to a report by NBC, initial processing fees can run from roughly $500 to $2,500, with annual storage fees of $100 to $300 every year thereafter.
And, according to WebMD, the chance that a child will use their cord blood over their lifetime is between one in 400 and one in 200,000.
Stored cord blood can’t always be used even if the person develops a disease later on in life because if the disease is caused by a genetic mutation, that would be in the stem cells.
That would be like transplanting the seeds of the disease back into the patient. Current research also says the stored cord blood may be useful only for 15 years.
The fact remains, however, that umbilical cord blood can save lives. The outcomes of cord blood transplants have also improved over the past 10 years due to better dosing, better matches, and better supportive care for patients.
While scientists are still exploring the many ways cord blood cells can be beneficial, it holds a promise for the future of medical procedures. Researchers at Duke University are currently studying its effects on cerebral palsy, and trials are underway for treatment of autism at the Sutter Neuroscience Institute in Sacramento, California, according to Parents magazine.
Cord blood banking is not cheap and your child may never need it, particularly if you don’t have a family history of diseases such as leukemia, lymphoma or sickle cell anemia. While cord blood can’t be used to treat the same child who has a genetic disease, it can be used to benefit a sibling or another immediate family member with leukemia, for instance.
A unit of stored cord blood at a public cord blood bank has a greater chance of being used to help a sick child or for stem cell research.
Private cord blood banks, however, will eventually throw away the cord blood that a family no longer wants to store.