Treatment uses for
cord blood

Real uses for real diseases

The treatment uses for cord blood are already established scientifically and accepted medically especially in the field of bone marrow transplant and for treatment of Leukemia and Fanconi's Anemia along with almost a hundred more known diseases. Whereas before the uses of cord blood is still to be proven as far as medical significance is concerned, now cord blood have tried, tested real uses to treat real, life threatening diseases.

Allow me first to give you a backgrounder on what blood cord banking is all about - it is the process of preserving the blood that is found from a new born baby's umbilical cord and the placenta. Blood cord banking happens as soon as a mother gives birth to her child. Using a safe process for both mother and newborn child, blood in the umbilical cord and placenta is immediately 'harvested' and placed in a sterilized tube, sealed and preserved through freezing and kept in a depository called Blood Cord bank. The parents have an option to use the blood for the child's personal use when the need arises in the future or the parents can opt to donate it, forfeiting their claim and rights to use their cord blood to anyone who will need it in the public.

Cord blood are primarily used to transplant stem cells to patients suffering from various diseases. The most common diseases treated with stem cell transplantation are as listed:

Liposomal Storage Diseases
1. . Adrenoleukodystrophy
2. . Gaucher's Disease
3. . Hunter's Syndrome (MPS-II)
4. . Hurler's Syndrome (MPS-IH)
5. . Krabbe Disease
6. . Maroteaux-Lamy Syndrome (MPS-VI)
7. . Metachromatic Leukodystrophy
8. . Morquio Syndrome (MPS -IV)
9. . Mucolipidosis II (I-cell Disease)
10. . Mucopolysaccharidoses (MPS)
11. . Niemann-Pick Disease
12. . Sanfilippo Syndrome (MPS-III)
13. . Scheie Syndrome (MPS-IS)
14. . Sly Syndrome Beta-Glucuronidase Deficiency (MPS-VII)
15. . Wolman Disease

Histiocytic Disorders
1. . Familial Erythrophagocy Lymphohistiocytosis
2. . Hemophagocytasis
3. . Histiocytosis-X
4. . Langerhans' Cell Histiocytosis

Inherited Erythrocyte Abnormalities
1. . Beta Thalassemia Major
2. . Blackfan-Diamond Anemia
3. . Pure Red Cell Aplasia
4. . Sickle Cell Disease

Congenital (Inherited) Immune System Disorders
1. . Absence of T & B Cells SCID
2. . Absence of T Cells, Normal B Cell SCID
3. . Ataxia-Telangiectasia
4. . Bare Lymphocyte Syndrome
5. . Common Variable Immunodeficiency
6. . DiGeorge Syndrome
7. . Kostmann Syndrome
8. . Leukocyte Adhesion Deficiency
9. . Omenn's Syndrome
10. . Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID)
11. . SCID with Adenosine Deaminase Deficiency
12. . Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome
13. . X-Linked Lymphoproliferative Disorder

Other Inherited Disorders
1. . Cartilage-Hair Hypoplasia
2. . Ceroid Lipofuscinosis
3. . Congenital Erythropoietic Porphyria
4. . Glanzmann Thrombasthenia
5. . Lesch-Nyhan Syndrome
6. . Osteopetrosis
7. . Tay Sachs Disease

Inherited Platelet Abnormalities
1. . Amegakaryocytosis / Congenital Thrombocytopenia
Plasma Cell Disorders
2. . Multiple Myeloma
3. . Plasma Cell Leukemia
4. . Waldenstrom's Macroglobulinemia

Other Malignancies
1. . Brain Tumors
2. . Breast Cancer
3. . Ewing Sarcoma
4. . Neuroblastoma
5. . Ovarian Cancer
6. . Renal Cell Carcinoma
7. . Small-Cell Lung Cancer
8. . Testicular Cancer

Autoimmune Diseases
1. . Evan Syndrome
2. . Multiple Sclerosis (Experimental)
3. . Rheumatoid Arthritis (Experimental)
4. . Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (Experimental)

Potential Future Stem Cell Applications

1. . Alzheimer's Disease
2. . Diabetes
3. . Heart Disease
4. . Liver Disease
5. . Muscular Dystrophy
6. . Parkinson's Disease
7. . Spinal Cord Injury
8. . Stroke

Cord Blood are also a rich source of hematopoietic stem cells that are used for allogeneic transplantation. These are used for cancer treatment, to address marrow failure, and to correct immunodeficiency and inborn errors in metabolism. There are more than 2000 cord blood transplants to date.

The potential of cord blood as a transplantable hepatic progenitor is likewise being intensively researched. Experimentation on the process was successfully undertaken on lab mice. Not to mention that cord blood is also an effective source of neurons and glial cells and mesenchymal stem cells.

Now, tell me, isn't all the preceding proof enough of the tremendous real time uses and strong potential uses of cord blood? Need I say more?

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