November 17 is a World Cord Blood Day

“Liquid gold of medicine”, “the greatest success story in biotechnology”, “gift of life”, “gift of nature” – this is how the umbilical cord blood was called during 32 years of its successful use for the treatment of diseases!

Back in the 70’s of the twentieth century, studies by S. Knudtson, H. Broxmeyer and others proved that umbilical cord blood according to its cellular composition is more similar to bone marrow than peripheral blood, that flowing in the vessels of an adult, or rather contains a large number of hematopoietic stem cells – CD34+. Hematopoietic stem cell transplant, better known as bone marrow transplant, is the only treatment for some malignant and genetic diseases of the blood and metabolism. Donnal Thomas and Joseph Murray were awarded the Nobel Prize for their development of the CD 34+ cell transplant method, and today it is the “gold standard” in oncohematology.

Given the challenges of finding a compatible bone marrow donor and the trauma of obtaining this biomaterial, the idea of ​​completely safe and painless isolation of hematopoietic cells from umbilical cord blood looked extremely encouraging, and in 1988 the first successful umbilical cord blood transplant was performed in France. Subsequently, umbilical cord blood transplant became a part of medical protocols, and today more than 40,000 such applications have been performed in hematology alone. Umbilical cord blood stem cells in clinical trials are also used in the treatment of autism, cerebral palsy, pulmonary dysplasia, cardiovascular diseases etc.

The efficacy of umbilical cord blood stem cells and umbilical cord in the treatment of COVID-19 is studied. In Ukraine, the Institute of Cell Therapy using umbilical cord blood stem cells and umbilical cord has developed a method of treating complications of COVID-19, liver cirrhosis and viral hepatitis, diabetes, cardiomyopathy, critical lower extremity ischemia and acute pancreatic necrosis.

In order to raise public awareness on the biological value of umbilical cord blood and the possibility of its long-term storage, November 17 is the World Cord Blood Day. Cord blood biobanking is supported by the most authoritative international organizations, in particular the Red Cross.

In Ukraine, expectant parents can save umbilical cord blood at childbirth in the Cryobank of the Institute of Cell Therapy, the Ukraine’s first  biobank (since 2003, licensed by the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, ISO accreditation). Cryobank also provides services of long-term storage for placental and umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells according to international standards.