The Stem cells are predominantly called the "master cells" of the human body because of their ability to create all other tissues, organs, and systems in the body. The stem cells are the building blocks of your blood and immune system. They are the factory of the blood system and continually make new copies of themselves and produce cells that make every other type of blood --Red blood Cells, White Blood Cells and Platelets. There are basically three sources where stem cells can be easily found .
1) Bone Marrow
2) Peripheral Blood and
3) Umbilical Cord Blood
Various researches done in this field suggest that stem cells obtained from cord blood are relatively more advantages over those retrieved from bone marrow or peripheral blood because they are immunologic ally "younger" and appear to be more versatile. They also demonstrate an important characteristic with embryonic stem cells and are able to differentiate into nearly all cell types in the body. Secondly it is easy to get stem cells from cord blood because they are readily obtained from the placenta at the time of delivery. Harvesting stem cells from bone marrow requires a surgical procedure, performed under general anesthesia and can cause post-operative pain or pose a small risk to the donor.
The promise of using stem cells for medical treatments have been the focus of researches various projects that are showing encouraging results.
- Cord blood stem cells help in the treatment of diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
- They have also proven their ability in the treatments for heart disease, allowing patients to essentially "grow their own bypass."
- Stem cells have the potential to help cure many life-threatening ailments like leukemia, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, anemia, inherited disorders and all other deficiencies of the immune system.
- Lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, liver disorders and heart ailments can also be treated with stem cells.
On the other hand a wider range of recipients can benefit from cord blood stem cells. These can be stored and transplanted back into the donor, to a family member or to an unrelated recipient. For a bone marrow transplantation, there must be a nearly perfect match of certain tissue proteins between the donor and the recipient. When stem cells from cord blood are used, the donor cells appear more likely to "take" or engraft, even when there are partial tissue mismatches.
Certain complications like graft versus host disease (GVHD), in which donor cells can attack the recipient's tissues, are less likely to occur with cord blood than with bone marrow. This may be because cord blood has a muted immune system and certain cells, usually active in an immune reaction, are not yet educated to attack the recipient. A research done in this field revealed that children who received a cord blood transplant from a closely matched sibling were 59 percent less likely to develop GVHD than children who received a bone marrow transplant from a closely matched sibling.
Cord blood also is less likely to contain certain infectious agents, like some viruses, that can pose a risk to transplant recipients .In addition, cord blood may have a greater ability to generate new blood cells than bone marrow. Ounce for ounce, there are nearly 10 times as many blood-producing cells in cord blood. This fact suggests that a smaller number of cord blood cells are needed for a successful transplantation.
With the rapid advancement in Medical Science there has also been a corresponding development in the number of preserved cord blood units being used in regenerative medicine applications. If expectant parents store their baby's cord blood in a family bank, the stem cells are immediately available for use in medical treatments, including future therapies to repair or replace damaged heart tissues. As a result, an infant's cord blood could prove to be a life-saving treatment option if that child is born with a congenital heart defect, or later in life following a sudden and serious heart attack. In regenerative medicine, the latest scientific evidence suggests that using one's own stem cells likely delivers more favorable outcomes.