Life Bank Chain

Saving Cord Blood

Cord blood, which is also called 'placental blood', is blood that remains in the umbilical cord and placenta following the birth of a baby and after the umbilical cord is cut after delivery. Through the science of cord blood banking, cord blood can help nurture life, long after a baby's birth and provide a source of stem cells should the need ever arise for a stem cell transplant. This is because cord blood is a rich source of stem cells known as haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). These HSCs are primarily responsible for replenishing blood and regenerating the immune system.

Benefits of Saving Cord Blood

There are many reasons why you should bank your baby's cord blood stem cells.

They include:
A guaranteed match for autologous transplants (where the donor and recipient are the same individual). Autologous stem cell transplants refer to transplants where the donor and recipient of the stem cells are the same individual. The cord blood that you are storing for your baby today is a potential medical resource for the future, and does not require stringent matching as opposed to conventional bone marrow stem cell transplants.

A Readily Available Supply of Stored Haematopoietic Stem Cells. In the event of an already time-critical situation where stem cells are required for a transplant, having your child’s cord blood stored compares well to having to do a national or international search which is both costly and time-consuming. Lower risk of Graft vs. Host Disease (GvHD) for autologous transplants. Graft vs. Host Disease refers to a common complication where the transplanted tissue attacks the patient's own tissue. This disease will usually occur in transplants when the donor and recipient are different. Ease of collection, which is pain-free and risk-free to both mother and child. Cord blood collection is a relatively easy task, which is handled by your own delivering doctor. This process does not affect the birthing process in any way.

Cellular-based therapy for regenerative medicine

Stem cell and immune cell advanced therapy

Stem cells are undifferentiated, or “blank,” cells. They’re capable of developing into cells that serve numerous functions in different parts of the body. Most cells in the body are differentiated cells. These cells can only serve a specific purpose in a particular organ. Since stem cells have the ability to turn into various other types of cells, scientists believe that they can be useful for treating and understanding diseases.

According to the recent research (2), stem cells can be used to:

◾ grow new cells in a laboratory to replace damaged organs or tissues

◾ correct parts of organs that don’t work properly

◾ research causes of genetic defects in cells

◾ research how diseases occur or why certain cells develop into cancer cells

◾ test new drugs for safety and effectiveness

Immune cell therapy

Immune cell therapy is an extremely promising approach for the treatment of many diseases with an immune component including cancer, autoimmune disease, and chronic inflammation. In many immune cell therapies, specific cell populations are isolated, genetically modified, activated, and expanded to the large numbers required for patient treatment. T cells, NK cells, regulatory T cells (Treg cells), or dendritic cells can be redirected to attack tumors or amplify a local immune response. Genome engineering can introduce chimeric antigen receptors (CAR), T cell receptors (TCR), or other proteins to enhance the intended therapeutic activity. A growing number of CAR T-cell therapies are being developed and tested in clinical studies.

There are currently a total four immune cell therapies that are approved by the FDA for the treatment of cancer:

◾ Axicabtagene ciloleucel (Yescarta®): a CD19-targeting CAR T cell immunotherapy; approved for subsets of patients with lymphoma

◾ Brexucabtagene autoleucel (Tecartus™): a CD19-targeting CAR T cell immunotherapy; approved for subsets of patients with lymphoma

◾ Lisocabtagene maraleucel (Breyanzi®): a CD19-targeting CAR T Cell immunotherapy; approved for subsets of patients with lymphoma

◾ Tisagenlecleucel (Kyrmriah®): a CD19-targeting CAR T cell immunotherapy; approved for subsets of patients with leukemia and lymphoma