The month of July has been considered National Cord Blood Awareness Month in the US for many years. After all, umbilical cord blood can save lives, but due to ignorance, it is often thrown away after childbirth.
The value of umbilical cord blood is due to the presence of hematopoietic stem cells in it, the same ones that are used in the treatment of leukemia and other blood pathologies during the operation better known as bone marrow transplantation. However, in the last decade, stem cells are increasingly obtained from peripheral blood after pharmacological mobilization or umbilical cord blood.
After childbirth, parents have the opportunity to transfer umbilical cord blood to a public (donor) biobank for free, where it will be properly processed and used to a patient who is immunologically suitable. Parents also have the opportunity to save umbilical cord blood in a family-type bank exclusively for the needs of their family in case of illness. In Ukraine, only paid storage of umbilical cord blood is available so far as biological insurance for the baby and his family.
Since 2003, the first umbilical cord blood cryobank in Ukraine has been operating in Kyiv at the Institute of Cell Therapy, which provides high-quality storage services for umbilical cord blood, umbilical cord and placenta stem cells in accordance with the requirements of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and international standards.
In recent years, even more convincing facts have appeared in the scientific literature in favor of the storage and clinical use of umbilical cord blood. It has been shown that in the case of chronic myeloid leukemia and other high-risk hemoblastoses, the use of umbilical cord blood is characterized by the highest treatment efficiency compared to other sources of similar cells (bone marrow, peripheral blood). Umbilical cord blood is also less likely to cause immunological complications. Umbilical cord blood can be the transplant of choice for genetic metabolic diseases, when transplantation of hematopoietic stem cells should be performed as soon as possible – frozen allogeneic umbilical cord blood is always ready for use, and the search for a donor is sometimes a long process. In regenerative medicine, stem cells of umbilical cord blood, umbilical cord, and placenta are increasingly used in the treatment of autoimmune diseases, cardiovascular pathology, liver diseases, nervous system, musculoskeletal system, and infertility.
