November 15 is a World Cord Blood Day.
Since 1988, umbilical cord blood has been used in medicine as a source of hematopoietic stem cells comparable to bone marrow. Transplantation of hematopoietic stem cells is a standard procedure in the treatment of many blood diseases, malignant and genetically determined, as well as congenital metabolic disorders and immunodeficiencies. To date, more than 60,000 umbilical cord blood hematopoietic stem cell transplants have been performed.
In Ukraine, about 1,000 patients annually require hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
Cord blood banks have been operating in most countries of the world for over 30 years. They are of two types – public (state, donor) and private (autologous, family). When a child is born, parents can save umbilical cord blood as biological insurance for the family’s needs in an autologous bank, or transfer it without profit to a donor bank. Donor banks transfer appropriately processed umbilical cord blood to medical centers for the treatment of patients for whom it is immunologically suitable. About 7 million umbilical cord blood preparations have been preserved in the world.
Since 2003, the first cryobank of Ukraine – the Institute of Cell Therapy has been providing expectant parents with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to preserve umbilical cord blood stem cells, as well as umbilical cord and placenta, collected at the birth of a baby. In the conditions of a full-scale invasion, the administration and staff of the Cryobank are making every effort to ensure the smooth operation of the enterprise. Scientists of the Institute of Cell Therapy have also developed a method of treating gunshot and mine wounds using the amniotic membrane of the placenta.
The latest achievements in the field of clinical application of stem cells of umbilical cord blood, umbilical cord and placenta are regularly covered in the digests of the Institute of Cell Therapy, available at the link https://cryobank.ua/digest/
