Umbilical Stem Cell Usage Vs. Bone Marrow Donation
Over the last decade scientists have proven the many benefits that can be obtained by using umbilical stem cells to treat patients. Even though the topic of stem cell research, as a whole, is up for moral debate, there are not many who can deny that harvesting umbilical cord blood is a good idea. How is an umbilical stem cell harvested?
The first thing that readers need to know is that the harvesting of umbilical cord blood is not an invasive procedure. In fact, neither the newborn baby nor its mother experience any pain when the cord blood is harvested. Here is how the procedure is done:
After a baby is born, the doctor ties and cuts the umbilical cord as he or she normally would. A technician then places a needle into the vein of the umbilical cord and drains the cord of its blood. The blood is then promptly stored in a cord blood bank for future use. Because the baby and mother are tied off from the umbilical cord, neither person experiences pain at the draining of the cord blood.
The parents can decide whether to donate the cord blood to a public bank to be used whenever it is needed by whomever needs it or they can choose to store the blood in a private bank in case members of the family need it for future use.
The big issue with the umbilical stem cell, particularly to those who are accessing the cells via a public donation bank, is whether or not it is safe to graft or transplant these cells into a patient who does not share DNA with the donor. The fact is that studies have shown that, in many cases, it is safer to use umbilical cells than it is to use traditional methods of life saving procedures like bone marrow transplants.
A study done in 2000 proved that cord blood transplant patients had lower incidents of graft v. host disease after receiving a donation of umbilical stem cells.
The donation process poses no harm to the mother or her newborn baby and the transplant can now sometimes be done as an outpatient procedure. Bone marrow donation, on the other hand, involves a lengthy and painful surgical procedure for both the donor and the recipient.
Finding a bone marrow match is most often limited to a patient’s family members. With the donation of stem cells from an umbilical cord, the match criteria are not as strict. Donor stem cells are more likely to “take” even when there are tissue mismatches between the transplant donor and the recipient.
Finally, the umbilical stem cell is less likely to carry with it viruses or infections, whereas bone marrow has been known to introduce new illnesses to the recipient patient.
