Umbilical cord blood has been used in medicine since 1988 as a source of hematopoietic (blood-forming) stem cells, which are identical to bone marrow or peripheral blood cells after pharmacological mobilization. Compared to transplants from adult donors, umbilical cord blood is less likely to cause immunological complications (“graft versus host” syndrome), this is a significant advantage. However, a relative obstacle to the widespread use of umbilical cord blood in oncohematology for some time was that the hematopoietic cells of this biomaterial had longer engraftment time. But to date, the engraftment rates of umbilical cord blood transplants have improved significantly.
Analysis of the engraftment period of hematopoietic stem cell transplants from umbilical cord blood and adult donors in the case of haplotransplantation showed that this indice is comparable. Haplotransplantation of hematopoietic stem cells is a transplant when the donor and recipient are only half compatible, and to prevent rejection, the recipient receives immunosuppressive therapy in the post-transplant period.
Today, the engraftment period of a cord blood transplant is 19 days on average, in the case of haplotransplantation of adult cells, it is also 18-19 days. The rate of graft failure both in the case of umbilical cord blood transplantation and haplotransplantation is about 4%. This is important information for transplantologists and oncology hematologists, which encourages the wider use of umbilical cord blood in the treatment of blood pathology.
To date, the number of umbilical cord blood transplants has exceeded 65,000, and this is only in oncohematology and the treatment of genetic diseases. In regenerative therapy, hematopoietic and mesenchymal stem cells of umbilical cord blood, umbilical cord, and placenta are widely used in clinical trials in the treatment of diseases of the nervous and cardiovascular systems, musculoskeletal system, and autoimmune diseases.
Based on: https://parentsguidecordblood.org/en/news/myth-cord-blood-has-less-engraftment-haplo-transplants
