Why are doctors turning to cord blood instead of bone marrow?
Easier to match - higher survival: Bone marrow is difficult to match between the donor and recipient because a 'perfect match' is usually required. Cord blood immune cells, however, are less mature than in bone marrow and can be successfully used even when there is only a half-match. This means there is more opportunity for transplants between family members when cord blood is stored. Some studies have shown that overall survival rates for related transplants are more than double that of transplants from unrelated donors.

Immediate availability: Banking cord blood ensures that these stem cells can be immediately available if they are needed for treatment. Early treatment of many illnesses can minimize disease progression. According to researchers at Duke University, cord blood transplants could provide possible survival that is unlikely with the more time consuming process of unrelated marrow donation.

Less GVHD: Overall, patients who receive cord blood transplants from a relative experience significantly less Graft vs. Host Disease (GVHD), a transplant rejection that is the leading cause of death in stem cell transplant patients. According to one study, the three-year cumulative incidence of chronic GVHD was 6% for matched siblings who received cord blood transplants versus 15% for matched siblings who received bone marrow transplants.

How we can start for Cord blood storage?
It is very easy, just decide to keep your baby's umbilical cord blood stem cell in Royan Cord Blood Bank (RCBB). You can contact to RCBB center or its brunch in other city and fill the necessary forms.

Blood Collection: Cord blood collection is simple and poses no risk to you or your baby. Immediately after your baby’s delivery, the umbilical cord is clamped and the baby is separated from the cord. At this point, the needle attached to the collection bag is inserted into the vein in the umbilical cord. The placental blood/umbilical cord blood, drawn by gravity, then flows into the collection bag. The bag comes equipped with an anti-coagulant to keep the blood from clotting before it reaches our laboratory.

Unlike traditional bone marrow collection, which usually requires general anesthesia and recovery, the process of collecting cord blood is non-invasive, painless and generally takes just three to five minutes to complete. NECBB will supply you with a cord blood collection kit prior to your baby’s delivery date. You simply bring the kit to the hospital for the physician, nurse or midwife to collect the cord blood after you deliver.

Processing and Storage: With more than 3 years of experience in cryopreservation methods, RCCB lab offers the experience you can trust in processing and storing your baby’s cord blood. Our state-of-the-art facilities and qualified personnel ensure that your cells are processed and stored under the strictest guidelines.

1. Umbilical Cord Blood Collection: Immediately after your baby’s delivery, the umbilical cord is clamped and the baby separated from the cord.
   At this point, the needle attached to the collection bag is inserted into the vein in the umbilical cord. The placental blood/umbilical cord blood, drawn by gravity, then flows into the collection bag. The bag comes equipped with an anti-coagulant to keep the blood from clotting before it reaches our laboratory. The process is non-invasive, painless and generally takes between three and five minutes to complete.

2. Using the Collection Kit: RCBB will supply you with a cord blood collection kit prior to delivery date. You simply bring the kit to the hospital for the physician or midwife to collect the cord blood after you deliver.

3. Shipping your kit to RCBB: Once the attending physician or midwife has completed the umbilical blood collection, your sample is picked up at your hospital, either by your husband, your relation or Shipment Company sent to our laboratory in Tehran Bani Hashem SQ. If your blood is coming from a destination outside our local area, our Worldwide Shipper ships via priority overnight to ensure that your blood arrives within 72 hours of delivery.

4. Processing: Cord blood processing technique includes full cell separation, a method designed to optimize viability and usability of your baby’s stem cells. To shield the stem cells from freezing damage, we use DMSO (Dimethyl Sulfoxide), a cryoprotectant, which is washed out of the stem cells in the thawing and preparation process prior to transplantation. Research has shown that this methodology is the most successful in terms of cell recovery and ultimately for transplant results.

5. Quality Control Steps and Long term Storage: Your baby’s cord blood stem cells are stored in up to bag or cryovials. With multiple storage units, it is not necessary to thaw your entire specimen at once; thus, RCCBB offers the potential for multiple usage. The cryovials are designed specifically for long-term cryogenic storage for check cell condition during long term storage and before using the main bag for cell therapy. We also set aside one smaller samples, which can be used for Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) type matching should the cells be needed for someone other than your baby. (HLA type matching determines whether a patient has a suitable donor for stem cell transplant.) One-hundred percent of the processed cells are preserved for your family and nothing is withheld for our use.

Cord Blood Banking Costs
Primarily, there are two types of fees associated with cord blood banking. The first is the initial fee, which includes enrollment, collection and storage for at least the first year, and the second is an annual storage or banking fee. Some facilities offer a variety of options for the initial fee with predetermined extended periods of storage.

We have conducted an initial research using varieties of online and offline resources to find out the cost involved. According to our research the initial fee will range from 5,500,000 Rials. Annual storage fees beyond the initial storage fee are approximately 1,000,000 Rials.

That may sound expensive, but the cost of processing cord blood and storing it in medical freezers for years on end is considerable. Even public cord blood banks say the initial collection, processing, and storage procedures they use cost about $1,000 per unit of cord blood. It is quite common for storage facilities to offer prepaid plans at a discount and payment plans to make the initial storage easier on you and your family.

At now in our center, cord blood donation does not have any position but in general there is no cost to donate cord blood. Donor banks take care of the procedure in covering the cost of storing the cord blood; however, some parents wish to have the option of storing the cord blood for their own personal family use and will pay a nominal fee and for that reason there will be a fee for storage. Information about banks that will hold cord blood for private family usage can be found conveniently at various online resources.

Important Questions
What is proposed in terms of cord blood transplants in the future?
To date, umbilical cord blood has been used in more than 8,000 transplants for children and adults. In many cases, the cord blood was used by the baby's sibling. Other transplants have occurred for the newborn himself, the newborn's mother, father, and the newborn's cousin.

In the past two years alone, research has demonstrated that cord blood stem cells can differentiate into other types of cells in the body. The regenerative qualities of stem cells have been brought to the forefront in the field of cellular repair. Stem cells have been labeled an important biological resource and researchers are conducting more and more studies to unlock the potential of umbilical cord blood stem cells in future applications for diseases like Alzheimer's, diabetes, heart and liver disease, muscular dystrophy, Parkinson's disease, spinal cord injury, and stroke.

What is graft vs. host disease (GVHD)?
GVHD is one of the most common and life threatening side effects of a stem cell/bone marrow transplant. GVHD occurs when the transplanted stem cells recognize the recipient's body as foreign, and 'reject' it. Cord blood transplants have had a noticeable lack of GVHD because the stem cells from the donor do not need to match the recipient as closely as with bone marrow.

What is HLA matching?
Matching refers to six proteins called Human Leukocyte Antigens (HLA) that appear on the surface of white blood cells and other tissues in the body. These six HLA points, or loci, determine tissue compatibility between a patient and a donor. Although a perfect match would be best, studies have shown that cord blood transplants are successful, even when only three of the six loci match. With cord blood, the immune cells are less mature than those in bone marrow, and therefore siblings are twice as likely to be able to use each other's cord blood, compared to bone marrow.

How many years we can storage cord blood cells?
Theoretically, stem cells should last forever, but cord blood research has only been ongoing since the 1970s, so the maximum time for storage and potential usage are still being determined. However, studies have shown good cord blood cell recovery after up to ten years of storage (Clin Exp Immunol 1997; 107, Suppl 1), but there is no concrete answer as studies are ongoing to determine the storage life of cord blood units.

Even after 15 years in the deep freeze, human umbilical cord blood may be used to restore bone marrow in cancer patients, according to a study that showed cells from long-frozen specimens were able to grow and expand in laboratory mice. 'People have been wondering how long we can freeze and store these cells,' said Hal Broxmeyer , a researcher at the Indiana University School of Medicine. 'Our paper says it is highly likely that they can be stored for at least 15 years.'

In a study appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Broxmeyer and his co-author report that human cord blood frozen in 1985 and 1986 was able to grow in laboratory cultures with the same vigor as fresh cord blood. When put into mice, the defrosted cells thrived in the laboratory animals` bone marrow.

Dr. Celso Bianco of America`s Blood Centers, an organization of blood and bone marrow banking companies, said the research finding by Broxmeyer is very important for expanding the availability of material for bone marrow transplants. However, Bianco cautioned that the Broxmeyer study is experimental, and 15-year-old cells will have to prove themselves in clinical use before such lengthy preservation by freezing is accepted by other experts in the field.

Researchers and scientists are much hopeful that cord blood can be stored for much longer time period provided all the necessary care is been taken while collecting and storing it. However, as of yet this is one of the main disadvantages that it is not known how long cord blood can be stored without losing its effectiveness. Fortunately, the supply of cord blood is potentially so great that banks could discard older samples. Thus far, cord blood samples have been preserved for as long as 8 years and then successfully transplanted. By comparison, autologous bone marrow stored for 2 years and longer (up to 11 years in one case) has been successfully transplanted in 94% to 97% of patients.

If you will find any questions, please contact to us, our academic staffs are ready to help you

Thank you for your consideration
Royan Cord Blood Bank