Umbilical Cord Blood Donation

After the birth of a baby, snipping the umbilical cord and discarding it and the placenta is typical. But there is a relatively new option offered to expectant parents-save newborn stem cells found in cord blood for use by their family at a later date or to donate to help others.  

Fred Goldman, MD, Children's Hospitals of Iowa pediatrician and director of the Hematopoietic Stem Cell Bank, said a Cord Blood Bank or registry was established several years ago because it was recognized that stem cell research was a very, very important area to be in.

"Stem cells, as you may know, are immature cells in your body, and these cells can become anything. They can become a muscle cell or a brain cell or can be pushed into anything and they originate from a very, very immature cell and these can be found in somewhat high frequency in the umbilical cord. So, we felt that it was important to try to save these cells for researchers around The University of Iowa, and in fact around the country, because there was a general lack of these cells available to us."  

Goldman says there instances when a family might want to have their child's cord blood saved for their own use. "In fact, I'm also a bone marrow transplant physician, and over the last 10 years or so, umbilical cord blood has become a popular source to use for bone marrow.  

"We don't really call it bone marrow, but an umbilical cord can serve the same exact function. In certain instances, if a child were to need a bone marrow transplant and he were fortunate enough to have a newborn brother or sister and that umbilical cord was available, that would be a really, really good source for them to have for their transplant.  

"It sort of brings up the question, "If we don't know if our child is going to get leukemia, should we just go ahead and save the cord blood for the 'what if ?'  

"Generally speaking, I and most other doctors don't recommend doing that, because the likelihood of needing it is so extremely small. However, if you do have a child that has a cancer, or a certain kind of a metabolic disorder, or a certain kind of a disease where a bone marrow transplant might be actually curative, in those instances we very much encourage families to save their umbilical cord blood," says Goldman.

Cord blood is collected quite easily. After the baby is delivered, the cord is normally clamped, and several minutes later then the placenta is delivered. The placenta and the remaining cord are a highly, highly enriched with lots of blood. "So what we do is we place a teeny little catheter into that umbilical vein, this is after the baby has already been born, and the catheter is placed and it drains blood into a little bag. That might take up to 10 minutes to fully drain the blood. That bag contains a preservative and something that prevents the blood for coagulating. Then we're able to take the bag filled with blood back to the laboratory and process it, save it, and put it into a liquid nitrogen tank for the future."

There is no risk to the baby or to the mother. After the baby is delivered and the mom is taken care of, then the nurse turns over the cord and the placenta and puts the catheter in at that time, so the priority is always the health of the baby and the mother, Goldman says.

If parents want to save the cord blood for research purposes and are interested in participating in our research project, we have the moms sign up within the first or second trimester says Goldman. "The reason is that they have to sign a consent form, and we sort of need to organize where the baby is going to be delivered, and necessary equipment needs to be given to the family. It's really simple. The only equipment is a small bag and some instructions for the doctor. We collect cord blood even if it is delivered outside of University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics," he says.

Cord blood is different because it contains very specialized cells called stem cells, and those stem cells are very, very valuable in research. "They can be used in many different types of research, including people who are doing blood work, work on the nervous system, and a whole host of other projects are currently using our cord blood.

"We find that it's just a wonderful resource of cells and it's something that would normally be thrown away. So here's an opportunity for people to actually help advance science and advance medicine by simply donating cells that would be discarded.

What are the benefits of saving cord blood for research and how can families enroll?

Some of the benefits are that we're going to find better ways to treat diseases, for instance, gene therapy. This is something that maybe a lot of people don't know about, but it's a new, novel way to treat diseases without having to give toxic medications.

"This is done by taking a gene that's abnormal in a certain disease and putting it into a stem cell. So, by experimenting with these cord blood stem cells, we're able to find better ways of treating diseases. Ultimately, I think gene therapy is going to replace bone marrow transplantation, because theoretically it can be a safer and have a more long-lasting effect than a transplant.

"And that's just one of those things that cord blood offers the opportunity to do. Clearly, other areas are being looked at, such as in myocardial infarctions, or heart attack, or strokes. In those two conditions, cells of the heart or the brain die. Stem cells can be mobilized from cord blood and can be, with the right signal, grown up and infused or returned to these patients and those stem cells will form new cells of the tissue that's been damaged" Goldman says.

University of Iowa Children's Hospital is participating in cord blood research. "In fact, some of the research I've just mentioned is already being done here at The University of Iowa. Other areas, including our own laboratory, are looking at the gene therapy approach for different diseases that affect bone marrow. Other doctors are also looking at how to generate new cells or different kinds of cells from this umbilical cord blood.

"The good news is that many of our research projects are sustained because of the cord To donate, call our cord blood bank at 319-353-3747 or visit the Umbilical Cord Donation site.

KXIC broadcasts are presented in mp3 format. The latest version of Windows Media Player, QuickTime Player, or Real Player is required to play them.

Listen to the radio broadcast.