Cord Blood Transplantation

History
The first cord blood transplant was performed on a 5 year-old Parisian boy who was suffering from Fanconi's anemia, using his newborn sister's HLA-matched umbilical cord blood. To date, the recipient is alive and well and free of disease. This achievement began an new era in umbilical stem cell transplantation. Since this first successful transplantation over ten years ago, there have been over 500 umbilical cord transplants worldwide, mostly involving children as recipients. A Cord Blood Center at Children's Hospital Oakland has been set up to address the needs of families with a child who has a hemoglobinopathy.

What is Cord Blood? Cord blood is the blood that remains in the umbilical cord and placenta following birth. Like bone marrow, it is a rich source of stem cells, the building blocks of the human immune system. Stem cells reproduce into red blood cells, which carry oxygen throughout the body; white blood cells, which fight infection; and platelets, which aid in blood clotting. Compared to bone marrow collection, cord blood collection is non-invasive, painless, less expensive and relatively simple. Some major advantages of cord blood transplantation are less frequent occurrence of graft vs. host disease (GVHD), greater tolerance for a partial HLA (tissue type) match and less risk and discomfort to the donor.

The first cord blood transplant was performed in 1988. Since then, more than 2000 transplant-ations have been performed using cord blood worldwide. The overall success in these transplant-ations has been remarkable, with an approximately 90 percent engraftment rate and a 40 percent probability of disease-free survival. <next>

<page 1> <page 2> <page 3> <page 4>