Umbilical Cord Blood Banking

673 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Life science essay stem cells offer great promise for new advanced cell therapy

Umbilical cord blood banking has been a new topic for the media and public. Science has shown there are copious benefits and a few drawbacks with the use of cord blood. One of these drawbacks is the cost of cord blood banking. If insurance companies were to be mandated to cover cord blood banking, then more people could reap in the benefits of having cord blood stored.
Umbilical cord blood was formerly believed of as a waste product. Now it is known that cord blood has two types of stem cells which offer multiple treatment possibilities (Waller-Wise, 2011). Cord blood contains hematopoietic stem cells and pluripotent stem cells. Hematopoietic stem cell can be utilized for regeneration of blood and immune system. Pluripotent stem cells have the capability to produce multiple tissue types of the ectoderm, endoderm, and mesoderm (Einstein & Merkatz, 2008). Both types of stem cells show the ability to be adapted into the treatment of a substantial range of diseases including neurologic, cardiovascular, endocrine, orthopedic, and ophthalmic conditions (Einstein & Merkatz, 2008). Stem cells can be utilized by transplant. Four principal types of physical disease that can be treated with stem cell transplants including blood disorders, congenital metabolic disorders, immunodeficiencies, and certain cancers (Waller-Wise, 2011). Some examples of diseases are Sickle-cell anemia, Tay-Sachs’ disease, Hodgkin’s and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, certain leukemias, and many more (Waller-Wise, 2011). It is recommended that persons with family history of any of the known diseases that can be helped with stem cell transplant consider cord blood banking.
Insurance companies will need to know that funding banking of cord blood is going to have more benefits than risk. Treatment of these types of diseases is one of the benefits. Although this treatment is similar to treatment with bone marrow, there are multiple more advantages with cord blood use. The one advantage is the ease to collect the cord blood. Next, there is no risk to the mother or child because it can be obtained from the placenta (Einstein & Merkatz, 2008). There is less time necessary for processing, which means it is available sooner. There is a lesser change for to develop graft versus host disease because it is much easier to find a match (Waller-Wise, 2011). Research of stem cell technology has plentiful possibilities for future development. Emerging indications are being researched to treat type 1 diabetes mellitus and some neurologic injuries such as cerebral palsy.

Show More
Related

  • Stem Cell Research: The Case of Roe vs. Wade in 1973

    1084 Words  | 3 Pages

    ... research can provide there is a lack of alternatives to stem cell research. Tissue that was harvested from stillborn fetus' typically have a genetic defect or are unusable because the fetus was dead weeks before it was removed from the woman that carried it (O’Neil 118). Scientists would not use "Irregular" tissue because it could lead to unforeseen problems in testing down the line. A study performed by "" showed that miscarried fetuses were only useable for treating patients 3.8 percent of the time (). Doctors in favor of stem cell research believe that allowing the use of aborted fetuses will speed up research leading to breakthroughs that can save many thousands of future lives.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of The Cord Clamping Process

    754 Words  | 2 Pages

    In most hospital delivery rooms, the doctors will routinely clamp and sever the umbilical cord with in fifteen to thirty seconds of the mother giving birth. When clamping the cord, the doctors will clamp the cord in two places, one close to the infant and then again in the middle of the cord another clamp. By delaying the clamping, fetal blood in the placental transfusion can provide the infant with an additional thirty percent more blood volume and up to sixty percent more blood cells (McDonald, S., & Middleton, P., 2009). This reduces the risk of the hemorrhaging that could occur after birth. But with new ongoing studies, it is said that by delaying the clamping of the cor...

    Read More

  • Federal Funds Should Be Used for Embryonic Stem Cell Research

    1400 Words  | 3 Pages

    Drugs can be tested on stem cells that develop into the target tissue before using it on human test subjects, which improves safety. Finally, transplantation of organs created from stem cells could eliminate the need for human organ donors.... ... middle of paper ... ... The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'.

    Read More

  • Use of Human Fetal Tissue in Research is Morally Repugnant

    2072 Words  | 5 Pages

    Research on human fetal life involves numerous complex medical, moral, and legal aspects. It is not always easy, nor desirable, to seal off one aspect from another. Both sides of fetal tissue use will be equally focused on as a moral issue. The topic is a timely and important one because research on human fetal life is reportedly a growing industry and the subject of legal developments both in the United States and around the world.

    Read More

  • A Look Into Delayed Cord Clamping

    1326 Words  | 3 Pages

    Cord clamping has long been practiced to occur immediately after birth of a neonate. There is much discussion and evidence based practice that shows improvements to health when we delay the clamping and cutting of the umbilical cord. Delayed clamping allows for more nutrient rich blood to flow to the infant’s body, which is going through shock at birth. Early clamping is generally done between 10 seconds after expulsion of the fetus to one minute , whereas delayed clamping ranges from two minutes until the cord finishes pulsating. The research collected will analyze early clamping and delayed clamping to see which practice is found to be healthier for mother and child.

    Read More

  • A Body’s Dignity of a Maternal Brain Dead Mother

    889 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...edical technology advancing the way it is and the ability to keep someone’s body alive after death has been declared than the definition of death needs to be changed accordingly. While there are upside o keeping the body alive, in the case of giving the fetus a chance to live, there are still too many downsides.

    Read More

  • Embryonic Stem Cell Research Persuasive Essay

    2065 Words  | 5 Pages

    Although there are many arguments against embryonic stem cell research, there have already been many success stories because of stem cells. Through bone marrow transplants and stem cell transplants many people survived illnesses against the odds. A bone marrow transplant is when bone marrow from a

    Read More

  • Stem Cell Research

    1328 Words  | 3 Pages

    Scientists would be able to grow spinal cells from pluripotent stem cells. These cells could possibly repair spinal cord damage. Those afflicted by paralysis, such as Christopher Reeve, could possibly move again. Stem cells could also be used to grow nerve cells, possibly combating Parkinson’s disease or Alzheimer’s. While it will be many years before scientists may actually be able to find a way to combat these diseases, there is a great promise in stem cells.

    Read More

  • Stem Cells, Umbilical Cord Blood Banking and Transplantation

    2886 Words  | 6 Pages

    Nowadays, there are many alternatives or any other methods to improve the healthcare especially in a transplantation world. There are few choices available for the people today such as the embryonic stem cells, bone marrow stem cells, peripheral blood cell and the most new is the umbilical cord blood. The umbilical cord blood (UCB) defined by Chima and Mamdoo (2011, p. 79) as the blood which taken from the cut umbilical cord attached to the placenta of a newborn baby after a delivery. It been stated (Chima and Mamdoo 2011, p. 79) that the cord derived from the allantois have a rich source of multipotent stem cells, including the CD34+ , CD38- and haematopoietic progenitor cells. This shows that the cord blood could be more potential as the bone marrow cell in the patients with the haematological or non-haematological problems. The first successful umbilical cord transplantation done was in 1989 in a child with a Fanconi’s anemia and since then, the growth or demand for the cord blood increased. As we can see, this contributed to a major reason for the need of umbilical cord blood donation, storage, processing, freezing, and releasing of cord blood to the patient. Thus, establishment of the cord blood bank (CBB) because of the demand increased (Ballen 2010, p. 8). As mentioned by Ballen (2005, p. 3786), the first establishment of cord blood bank was in the early 1990s in New York, Milan, and Dusseldorf. The storage of the cord blood could last for about 15 years (Fadel 2006, p. 1). The point is that there are many ethical and legal issues raised by this CBB that need clarification and justification like the informed consent, ownership and property rights, collection of cord blood, and public CBB vs private CBB.

    Read More

  • Stem Cells: The Future of Medicine

    3294 Words  | 7 Pages

    “Stem Cells: The Future of Medicine.” Medschool.umaryland.edu. University of Maryland School of Medicine Web 14 Nov 2013

    Read More

  • Should the cord blood of babies be stored for future use?

    1136 Words  | 3 Pages

    The umbilical cord has a vital role in keeping babies alive in the womb but could help cure a range of diseases and injuries (2010, Weaver). The umbilical cord contains a rich souse of stem cells, which are valuable because they can regenerate and fix human tissue. Some cells also have the ability to turn into different types of cells. Scientist believes with these ‘master’ cells they will be able to treat a wide range of disorders such as cancer, auto-immune diseases and arthritis. Storing the cord blood of new born babies could be a lifesaver to children’s that may become sick in their young age or it may just be a waste of money in the end, with currently only 1 in 41,000 (1% ) Australian mothers have chosen to bank their child’s cord blood.

    Read More

  • Bone Marrow Transplants

    1170 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the last 40 years, the emergence of bone marrow transplants as a therapeutic modality for fatal disease and as a curative option for individuals born with inherited disorders that carry limited life expectancy and poor quality of life (G). Over 4,500 hematopoietic stem cell [bone marrow] transplants performed on patients in the United States annually (H). Bone marrow transplants originally developed to allow the use of very high doses of cytotoxic drug treatments for malignancies, such as leukemia (B). Two types of possible donors: mismatched related donors [mmRD] and matched sibling donors [MSD] (E). Although bone marrow transplants seem promising, there can be drawbacks to this procedure. Graft-versus-host disease, where the body attacks itself, being the major obstacle. The purpose of this paper is to inform one about transplants and to see if this is a high-quality study to cure malignancy diseases.

    Read More

  • Making Blood Cells In The Laboratory Summary

    548 Words  | 2 Pages

    The article “Making Blood Cells in the Laboratory” by Linda Marsa talks about how teams at Cornell and Harvard universities were able to create hematopoietic stem cells. The hematopoietic cells ultimately serve as the essential components for blood. They also make the blood cells the body will need throughout life, which will be continuously replaced. To accomplish making these hematopoietic cells the Harvard team used human skin cell to make induced pluripotent stem cells, researchers then genetically reprogram these adult cells to an embryonic stem cell. From there the stem cells can grow into any kind of cell. By adding proteins that switched on genes the group successfully turned the induced pluripotent stem cell into an immature hematopoietic stem cell-like cells. The

    Read More

  • Blood Donation Case Study

    1006 Words  | 3 Pages

    Blood donation is a very essential procedure in the health system. The process entails collecting blood from willing donors, testing it and then separating it into its components so that it can be used on patients. Whereas hospitals are the main users of the donated blood, they are not exactly authorised to collect, test and separate it in their own premises. Most of the health institutions get the blood from larger bodies such as the Red Cross or other Community based blood groups. Though initially faced with lots of problems, blood transfusion has been used since 1667 as a solution to some of human illnesses. Since then to now, hospitals have grown so dependent on blood donation and transfusion to save human life. With it being used and applied

    Read More

  • Stem Cell Therapy

    1020 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...there are some risk factors in using stem cell for therapeutic approaches, hematopoietic stem cell therapy by bone marrow transplantation has already been proofed to be safe if donors’ background and screening, cell contamination, HLA matching and opportunistic or nosocomial infections during immunocompromised period were carefully monitored and controlled. Still, other types of stem cell therapies, despite of their good therapeutic efficacy, are remain in experimental stage and need more data to support and demonstrate the safety in clinical trials. More understanding of stem cell biology is also required in order to keep stem cell under controlled and avoid some complications that they might cause. So, to pave the way for successful stem cell therapy, research in this extent is needed to pursue to maximized therapeutic efficiency with highest safety in patients.

    Read More

More about Umbilical Cord Blood Banking

Open Document