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Are you planning for cord blood donation? Then, it’s important that you know about the kinds of cord blood banks.

Private Vs. Public Cord Blood Banks

Cord blood banks are mainly of two types, i.e. public cord blood banks and Private Banks. Normally, public cord blood banks are set up to facilitate umbilical stem cell research for disease treatment and for utilization in transplants of non-relatives. If you decide to save your baby’s cord blood at a public cord blood bank, they won’t provide you the link between your baby and her cord blood unit. Therefore, in time of need, there is no guarantee that you will be able to access your baby’s cord blood unit. On the contrary, if you donate your baby’s cord blood to a private bank, no one else is authorized to access and use that particular cord blood unit without your permission.

Public cord blood banks have been further categorized according to profit and non-profit objectives.

The Non-Profit Public Bank

An estimate says that about 75 per cent of cord blood banks across the globe are either public or private non-profit ones, which work for public interest. They save samples for transplant or cord blood research, and for family use, if a family has a known risk with a rare HLA group.

Remember, if you donate cord blood to a non-profit bank, then the bank, and NOT YOU, are the owner of it. These banks store the blood for free and add them in the donor registry, which is accessed by doctors and researchers.

The For-Profit Public Bank

These banks save your samples for free, but make profit by selling the cord blood units for research. The selling of freely stored blood is legal in US, but illegal in several Asian and European nations.

Private Cord Blood Bank

A private bank is an independent unit and not owned by the state. As mentioned earlier, ONLY YOU are entitled to access and use your cord blood sample. Such banks charge around $500 to $2,000 to store the sample. The charges vary with different private banks. Besides this, there is a maintenance fee or handling fee, which comes to around $100 annually.

Research Public Banks (RPBs)

These are another kind of banks, which were set up in the early 2000’s. The cord blood samples stored in such banks are not used for transplants, but ONLY for research. The banks take your samples for free and use them in their own research or sell them to other researchers.

So, now that you are aware of the kinds of cord blood banks, you can go for cord blood donations depending on whether you want to donate the sample for family use or simply help in research. Remember, if you don’t like the idea of someone else using your baby’s stem cells, forget using public cord blood banks.

As soon as a new baby is born, the umbilical cord that connects the baby to the mother is discarded. During pregnancy, this cord is the main source of nutrition for the baby but on delivery this tissue mass is cut and discarded. This is now changing since the time researchers have realized that umbilical cord blood is a major source of stem cells. Stem cells are unspecialized blood cells that produce all other blood cells, including blood-clotting platelets and red and white blood cells. These stem cells are essential to help regenerate blood in the human body. It is an effective cure for diseases that create a blood or immune disorder.

Today, there are over 45 genetic diseases that have been identified as being curable by stem cell transplant. Umbilical cord blood is used in this transplant just like bone marrow. The only difference is that unlike a bone marrow transplant, the umbilical cord blood is of one’s own self and is easier to match with the body. When high amount of radiation or cancer-killing drugs destroy the stem cells of the affected patients, stem cells can help rebuild the supply.

Umbilical cord blood is very small in volume, measuring only about 90ml. It has to be extracted immediately after the birth of the child and is stored cryogenically by private or public banks in the same manner as normal blood banks do. The blood is stored only with parental consent and can be kept for private as well as donated to a public bank. Since cord blood use for stem cell regeneration might be more effective and cheaper than using bone marrow an attempt is also being made to develop a cord blood donation program much like the bone marrow donor program.

With the discovery of the stem cells in the umbilical cord, the task of fighting against malignant diseases has been made somewhat easier. The Lifesaving potential found in cord blood has shown to reduce usual risks associated with transplant treatments. Being the most primitive cells in a body, these stem calls can regenerate different types of cells. In the past two decades, scientists have made major breakthroughs with every passing year. Today, a well-preserved unit of cord blood can save a person from more than 75 diseases! After finding a host of healing potentials in umbilical cord blood cells, scientists are still in the process and hopeful about discovery of more latent potential in cord blood cells. From professionals to parents of babies, the enthusiasm is widespread and evident – whether for donation or for cord blood preservation for future use.

Private Vs Public Cord Blood Banks

Your baby’s cord blood can be preserved in either a private cord blood bank or a public bank. The main purpose of these banks is the processing and cord blood storage. If the storage center is public, then the blood cells cannot be permanently entitled to the donor. Here the donors can be ensured units of cord blood, but not necessarily that his own. The donor is mostly likely to be a stranger. The cost of preservation in such banks is comparatively lower than the private banks offering cord blood banking facility.

Nevertheless, private blood banks do have their own share of obstacles. The cost of cord blood storage in private banks is quite high and is likely to discourage many. The biggest attraction towards private cord blood banks is the guarantee that the cord blood a patient preserves, will not be used by anyone else, unless the donor himself permits. Compared to the lower chances of cord blood cells transplants in a child, storage prices charged by these banks are relatively quite high.

How Much Worth Is It?

The capability of these enterprises, credentials of these private banks play as strong determining factors in the U.S. Banks accredited by the American Association of Blood Banks are entertained mostly by the hospitals. After cord blood collection, the samples are sent to these blood banks for processing and cyropreservation. Donors must check out the records related to the number of cases in which blood banks have used their stored samples in transplants. Recent estimation concludes that there is only 1% chance for autologous use of cord blood cells.

There are both non-profit and for-profit private banks operating in the industry for cord blood preservation. Cord blood storage for about 15 years may require you to pay around $3,000 in total. However, the donors can curtail price or can receive discounts by paying certain amount of upfront payments. Some banks enable donors to save around $500 for receiving a stipulated upfront payment.

If you and your partner are expecting a child soon, consider cord blood registry now as it can contribute in treating over 75 severe diseases. Not only will your child have a secure future, his siblings will benefit too. Diseases that can only be treated by drugs, rays such as chemotherapy or risk prone bone marrow transplants, are being treated with cord blood, with little or no side effects.

Umbilical cord blood is human blood from the placenta and umbilical cord that is rich in stem cells. Cord blood is collected after the umbilical cord has been detached from the newborn, and sometimes used as a source of stem cells for transplantation.

Cord blood can be stored by both public and private cord blood banks.

Umbilical cord blood is currently used for marrow replacement in a variety of disorders. Two distinct methods of collection exist for banked umbilical cord blood.

The first method is to collect the blood after the placenta has been delivered. Because blood in the placenta and umbilical cord clots rapidly, ex utero cord blood collection is performed as soon as possible after delivery of the placenta, typically within 10 minutes. The second method is to collect cord blood during the third stage of labor after the baby, but before the placenta is delivered. This method has the possible advantage of the placenta being compressed by the uterus, allowing more blood to be collected. However, in utero cord blood collection takes place in an environment that is inherently subject to a greater risk of contaminating the cord blood during collection.

The training and reporting relationship for the two forms also vary: the after placental delivery method uses collectors trained and employed by the cord blood bank; the utero collections are performed by the delivery room staff, usually the obstetrician or midwife who is responsible for the delivery of the baby and the placenta.

Despite the miraculous potential of stem cell cord blood to treat various life-threatening diseases, the public cord blood banks are getting limited donations. Why? There are many reasons for this. The common ones are inadequate equipment, lack of awareness among people, and fund problems. However, the major reason is that cord blood donors want to save the stem cells for their own family use.

However, latest reports prove that public cord blood banks are more beneficial for donors than other banks. Let’s see how.

Benefits Of Donating Cord Blood At Public Banks

# You can hardly use the saved cord blood for your immediate members. This is good because cord blood from an ill child is not suitable for his or her use. The genetic matter of the disease is encoded in blood cells too. Parents are also the carriers, which make them inapt in using the saved blood. In addition to this, the cord blood stem cells are not sufficient in quantity to transplant in adults or bigger-size person, who weighs more than 100 pounds.

# If you are in need of cord blood, the chances of getting a suitable match is more in public cord blood banks than that in private ones. According to the National Marrow Donor Program’s Dennis Confer, the success rate of getting a perfect match is only 25 per cent from private banks while that in public banks, it is 75 per cent. Moreover, if it’s an international based bank, then the success rate of getting a suitable match is even higher.

# Doctors mostly prefer cord blood from public cord blood banks. This is because such banks are under strict regulation and comply with rigorous standards for cord blood preservation, which is not so with private banks. The former are very particular about hygiene, amount, and the quality of staff whereas the latter are more interested in making profit. In short, the quality of your cord blood can be at risk at private cord blood bank facility.

# Public banks give priority to the need of the donors for their cord blood. Moreover, there are dim chances that your cord blood sample is used for the transplantation in someone else. According to an estimate, just 5 per cent of stored cord blood units are used.

# It’s more economical to save cord blood in public banks, as they do not charge any money, unlike private cord blood banks that charge around $2,000 for the cord blood collection and registry and an annual fee of $100 for storage.

Cord blood banking is a kind of insurance for parents who want to protect their child from possible future illnesses by storing the child’s cord blood in a cord blood bank. The embryonic stem cells in the cord blood have the power to differentiate. This is a process in which the embryonic stem cells divide and multiply and the new cells created may become many different kinds of cells. This makes embryonic stem cells special and many parents consider their worth when deciding to do cord blood banking or not.

Cord blood banking takes place between the mother of the newborn and the cord blood bank, or storage facility, she chooses. Once the transaction takes place, the cord blood is either owned by the parents (or parent) of the child or the bank, depending on the kind of bank the parent(s) choose for cord blood banking.

Private cord blood banking allows the parents to own the cord blood, and they pay a fee that can be one to two thousand dollars for the storage. Public cord blood banking is essentially a donation of the cord blood to the bank. The bank then sells the cored blood for transplants or grand funded research. A third option for cord blood banking, new this decade, is research cord blood banking. Research cord blood banks own the cord blood that is essentially donated to them by the parents, and they sell it to grant funded or other researchers. Public and research cord blood banks charge approximately $35,000 for each collection of cord blood that they sell.

Keeping the blood supply adequate begins with changing the way people think about blood. It is more than a medical remedy; it is also 4 a substance that has scientific, political, financial, and social implications. Because it is one of this country’s more precious human resources, it is, in fact, red gold — the name of a four-part PBS documentary about blood. Scheduled for Sunday nights, June 23 and June 30, the series is sponsored by Chiron and Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics. The American Red Cross, the American Association of Blood Banks, and America’s Blood Centers are joining forces with these companies to encourage audiences to view the four-part Red Gold PBS documentary. See local listing for air times in your location.

Space lasers may benefit blood banks

Researchers are using dyes and lasers to kill disease-causing viruses, including the one that causes AIDS, in stored blood. The Department of Defense, which financed part of the research, is touting the laser technique as a positive spin-off of its “Star Wars” program. In fact, in research published in the January/February TRANSFUSION, the system is reported to have a 100 percent viral kill rate without any detectable damage to normal blood elements - a better kill rate than its parent system is expected to have against incoming Soviet missiles.

More thorough screening of donated blood has successfully reduced the risk of viral contamination. But screening procedures are expensive and time-consuming, may generate false results and are altogether incapable of detecting some viruses. The new treatment, developed by a team of researchers at the Baylor (Tex.) Research Foundation, Southern Methodist University in DAllas and the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research in San Antonio, treats flowing suspensions of blood with a light-sensitive dye and a narrow-wavelength zenon arc lamp. The dye preferentially binds to the protein envelopes that enclose the viral particles. When the dyed viruses are exposed to laser light, a chemical reaction occurs that destroys them.

The method is effective against measles virus, herpes simplex virus type 1, cytomegalovirus and the AIDS-causing human immunodeficiency virus at a flow rate of about one pint every 15 minutes. The researchers say it may also prove effective against other viruses with similar envelopes, such as hepatitis B, Epstein-Barr virus and human lymphotropic virus type 1. They predict it will be ready for use in blood banks within the next two to five years.

Cord blood banking is a kind of insurance for parents who want to protect their child from possible future illnesses by storing the child’s cord blood in a cord blood bank. The embryonic stem cells in the cord blood have the power to differentiate. This is a process in which the embryonic stem cells divide and multiply and the new cells created may become many different kinds of cells. This makes embryonic stem cells special and many parents consider their worth when deciding to do cord blood banking or not.

Cord blood banking takes place between the mother of the newborn and the cord blood bank, or storage facility, she chooses. Once the transaction takes place, the cord blood is either owned by the parents (or parent) of the child or the bank, depending on the kind of bank the parent(s) choose for cord blood banking.

Private cord blood banking allows the parents to own the cord blood, and they pay a fee that can be one to two thousand dollars for the storage. Public cord blood banking is essentially a donation of the cord blood to the bank. The bank then sells the cored blood for transplants or grand funded research. A third option for cord blood banking, new this decade, is research cord blood banking. Research cord blood banks own the cord blood that is essentially donated to them by the parents, and they sell it to grant funded or other researchers. Public and research cord blood banks charge approximately $35,000 for each collection of cord blood that they sell.

As soon as a new baby is born, the umbilical cord that connects the baby to the mother is discarded. During pregnancy, this cord is the main source of nutrition for the baby but on delivery this tissue mass is cut and discarded. This is now changing since the time researchers have realized that umbilical cord blood is a major source of stem cells. Stem cells are unspecialized blood cells that produce all other blood cells, including blood-clotting platelets and red and white blood cells. These stem cells are essential to help regenerate blood in the human body. It is an effective cure for diseases that create a blood or immune disorder.

Today, there are over 45 genetic diseases that have been identified as being curable by stem cell transplant. Umbilical cord blood is used in this transplant just like bone marrow. The only difference is that unlike a bone marrow transplant, the umbilical cord blood is of one’s own self and is easier to match with the body. When high amount of radiation or cancer-killing drugs destroy the stem cells of the affected patients, stem cells can help rebuild the supply.

Umbilical cord blood is very small in volume, measuring only about 90ml. It has to be extracted immediately after the birth of the child and is stored cryogenically by private or public banks in the same manner as normal blood banks do. The blood is stored only with parental consent and can be kept for private as well as donated to a public bank. Since cord blood use for stem cell regeneration might be more effective and cheaper than using bone marrow an attempt is also being made to develop a cord blood donation program much like the bone marrow donor program.