These donations are sent for processing and storage for future potential use in unrelated transplantation, in a similar way to bone marrow donations. The donations are tested for a variety of parameters including markers of infection and for their tissue types. The tissue types of both unrelated cord blood and bone marrow donors are available for search for matches for any patient, anywhere in the world, for those who may require transplantation. This established non-directed or altruistic cord blood banking service is to be distinguished from directed family or autologous cord blood storage now being offered commercially by a number of companies trading in the UK.



Cord Blood stem cell. Choose cord blood bank, you get more. The cord blood banks collect stem cells from two sources—the placenta and the umbilical cord. The result: more stem cells. And more stem cells mean more therapeutic potential for you and your family. Blood collected from the umbilical cord and placenta after child birth contains hematopoietic stem cells that are able to differentiate into a number of specialized types of cells such as bone marrow. One problem is that little empirical evidence exists to show that stem cells extracted from a donor’s cord blood can be utilized in a therapy to the same donor. The majority of the successful transplants have involved cord blood from siblings.

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