My husband and I are expecting our second child next month. We have been researching on Stem Cell Banking of Cord Blood for some time now. We spoke with two concerns which provide this service in Chennai, LifeCell and Jeevan blood bank.
Cord cell banking typically involves taking blood from the umbilical cord immediately after the baby is born. This blood is processed and preserved at -193C. It costs about Rs 75,000 to store it for 21 years.
From what I understood, stem cells from cord blood have been used successfully in curing leukemia. In most cases it has been used for the relatives, rather than the child itself. It claims to help in the cure of 75 diseases including diabetes, Alzheimer’s and Arthritis. So far I have not found any evidence of this actually been done. I also heard that these stem cells cannot be cultured. Hence they can be used only once or twice. Which means if you use it for a relative (brother or father etc), it will not be available for the child.
If any of you have information or personal experiences to share on cord cell banking and its benefits, please do share it with me. It will help us take a more informed decision.
Congratulations!
Sorry, never heard about stem cell banking till I read this post.
Does not the blood group need to be the same to be used on relatives? It is good to know that such a therapy exists.
From what little i know there is no evidence of actual usage. The only reason, i may consider (if it were me) is that – stem cell research is advancing rapidly and if all goes to plan one day we may able to grow all types of cells from the stem cells. I would think about this more like some type of insurance.
Congrats!!
Are you still working or have taken a sabbatical?
Though I don’t have any personal or first hand information about Stem Cell Banking, I second Sukumar. We would never be able to imagine what would be the possibilities 21 years down the lane.
Congratulations Archana. As far as I know, stem cell banking has not come into vogue in India.
Archana,
Congratulations. Yes – We did save my daughter’s cord blood which is rich in stem cells (taken from her umbilical cord I believe) .We did this via a company in US called Cryo Cell. This was 7 years back. They said they could save it for 17 years for only $250.00. I did not know how useful it was going to be, but as Sukumar mentioned, with stem cell research progressing, you never know how useful it might be useful – either for my daughter or someone else. I hear the cost has increased.
Cryo Cell shipped us a package with a box where the stem cell could be stored and shipped to a location for longer term storage. The doctor who helped with the child birth collected the stem cells and placed it in the package. The whole process was pretty seamless.
http://www.cryo-cell.com/
Ganesh
Maveric – Apart from blood group matching, some DNA level matching needs to be done.
Sukumar- Thank you. that is the reason we are also thinking of going ahead with it.
Ram – Thank you. I am still working. Will be taking off mid next month.
Krishnan – Thank you very much. Apparently it is taking off. So far some 4L people have banked with lifecell.
Ganesh – Thanks a lot for sharing your experience. Lifecell has a technical collabaration with Cryo Cell. $250 appears to be a very reasonable amount. In India it is much more expensive.
Even doctors don’t seem to know much about the benefits. That is why I wanted to hear from people who have actually banked the cord cells.
Thanks once again for those insights.
Archana – Cord Blood has cells that have already differentiated to a certain extent. They can’t be used to grow any kind of cell like the stem cells. But, the limited use they have may justify storing them. Who knows what we may need & what science may be able to do? Just my thought.
This is news to me. From what I heard, cord blood contains undifferenciated stem cells and can be used to grow any type of cell, very much like those available in the bone marrow? Could you please point me to the source of this information.
Archana, only embryonic cells can develop into any organ. Its somewhat well known that umbilical cord cells are partially differentiated.
The technology is fairly new & it will take some time for the dust to settle. Only then would we know what really can be done with cord blood cells.
Not sure if you can use it, but if the “Cord Blood Registry” company is an option, there’s a $250 savings coupon available at http://www.cord-blood-banking-coupon.com/
Hi Archana..First of all, Congratulations!!…regarding stem cell banking! Although results have shown applications of cord blood stem cells in blood related disorders, but still the concept of stem cell banking is based very much on the idea that these applications are going to grow in the future.
Somebody already mentioned that only embryonic stem cells can be used for other non-blood disorders. This is true as of now but recent results have shown that non-embryonic stem cells can also be de-differentiated to embryonic stem cell like properties.
As somebody who has been involved in stem cell research myself, i think the field is growing at a very promising pace.
I have wondered why you haven’t blogged for a while now. I just realized that you have had you baby by now and are probably taking time off to be with your baby.
I hope all went well and that you are enjoying your new little one. I look forward to when you get back to blogging. I’ve missed your posts.