Why Should Think About Cord Blood and Tissue Banking – A Logical Analysis

The popularity of cord blood banking has gone mainstream after it got the approval of the FDA for its transfusions as a never-before way to treat 80 diseases. On the other hand, it’s no more secret that cord tissue is equally potential for future uses for your family as a regenerative medicine to cure different ailments and health disorders.

In fact, the effectiveness of cord blood has been well-established and thousands of stem cell transplantations are now performed every year globally for the treatment of life-threatening diseases cancer like leukemia, lymphoma, and brain palsy, solid tumors aside from anemia, metabolic, neurological, and genetic disorders.

In a similar way, researchers are continually studying cord tissues and scientists are quite positive that it will be discovered equally potential like cord blood to treat different other diseases and conditions. The situation often leads to confusion among parents to differentiate between cord blood and cord tissue and whether they should go for the cord blood and tissue banking option which appears to be an absolute solution for the wellbeing of the child and the entire family. Well, the article is intended to clear your confusion about how they differentiate, about their potentiality and thus enabling you to reach a good conclusion.  

What is Cord Blood?

The umbilical cord that connects a baby with the mother is the source of cord blood. If you’ve planned, immediately after the baby’s birth, the doctor clamps and cuts around 80–120 milliliters of the cord which can potentially get ½ to 1/3 of a cup of blood.

The blood is drawn using a surgical needle by a trained nurse from the cord and collected into the blood collection bag that comes from the bank where you bank your baby’s cord blood. The blood collected contains millions of RBCs, WBCs, platelets, plasma, as well as stem cells similar to all other blood; however, what makes the fetal cord blood unique is it that contains an abundance of hematopoietic potent stem cells. These cells have amazing power to continue regenerating blood and immune system cells.

The Need for Banking

As stated above, cord blood has already been used for more than two decades to treat leukemia, lymphomas, sickle cell anemia, and different metabolic and genetic disorders. Further clinical researches are about to explore the cord blood’s potential for the treatment of many advanced conditions like autism, stroke, cerebral palsy, diabetes, dementia, and more in years to come. This is the reason why cord blood banking is so important.  

What is Cord Tissue?

Cord tissue better known as the Wharton’s jelly is insulation that provides protection and structural support to the vessels of the umbilical cord by preventing them from any type of torsion, bending, or compression. On the delivery, the umbilical cord is clamped, and a section of 4 inches of the cord is cut for saving or banking. The specialty of cord tissue is that – enriched with epithelial and endothelial stem cells it’s found a highly promising source of mesenchymal stem cells.

The Need for Banking

These stem cells of the tissues are expected to generate the nervous systems, circulatory tissues, sensory organs, bone, skin, cartilage, etc. In different clinical studies, it has been observed that mesenchymal stem cells can effectively treat kidney and heart disease, Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS), Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, autoimmune disease like life-threatening diseases.

Conclusion: Why Is Cord Blood and Tissue Banking So Vital

So, apart from focusing on the prevailing benefits of cord blood banking, parents should equally consider how banking the cord tissue may be beneficial to their child and overall family over time. And from that perspective, it makes sense for you to consider cord blood and tissue banking, if you plan like this, just speak to the doctor who can collect the cord tissue just by cutting four inches of it and the remaining part can be used for collection of cord blood.