By: Giselle Acosta
In continuing our trend for July of highlighting and raising awareness, this week we chose to cover cord blood and its benefits. Cord blood is the remaining blood left in the umbilical cord after a baby’s birth and the cord is cut. This blood introduces a new way for doctors to help heal patients with certain conditions or disorders.
Cord blood is rich in hematopoietic stem cells, a type of stem cell usually found in bone marrow and peripheral blood (blood circulating throughout the body’s vessels). Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) can self-renew and even differentiate into all the types of blood cells; this makes it crucial when the body is trying to recover from disease or damage.
There are many situations where a doctor can use cord blood to help treat disorders or save patients’ lives; these include: blood cancers and disorders, inherited genetic disorders, immune system disorders, medical trials, and so many more. To make it clearer how cord blood serves toward the treatment of these conditions, blood cancers and disorders will be covered in depth since cord blood is frequently used to treat them.
Blood cancers like leukemia affect the bone marrow and blood by causing the bone marrow to produce abnormal white blood cells that do not function properly. These abnormal cells end up crowding the healthy blood cells, leading to a decrease in red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. This disruption causes the symptoms that come with leukemia such as fatigue, easy bruising and bleeding, and high susceptibility to infections. Cord blood transplants, which use stem cells from donated umbilical cord blood, provide a trusted method to replace diseased bone marrow and blood cells with new, healthy ones—offering patients a stronger immune system.
For this transplant to happen, a process has to occur. Patients must first go through conditioning therapy, which typically involves high-dose chemotherapy. This is done to destroy the patient’s existing bone marrow and suppress the immune system so that the donor cells have a smaller chance of rejection. Then, once the conditioning therapy is done, the cord blood is infused into the patient’s bloodstream, just like a blood transfusion. The stem cells in the cord blood migrate to the bone marrow and begin to engraft—meaning they start producing new blood cells for the patient’s body, essentially creating a new immune system that can recognize and attack remaining leukemia cells, helping prevent relapse.
This process emphasizes how important cord blood is—not only to the medical community, but also to the patients it can help. Since its first successful transplant in 1988, it has created endless opportunities for the medical community to find more uses for it in helping others. It has helped lead the way for multiple medical advancements, including the treatment of over 80 diseases, and is now often used as an alternative for bone marrow transplants if no viable matches are found. Cord blood has even proven to increase success rates for children and reduce the risk of complications. Currently, there are over 300 clinical trials taking place exploring the potential of cord blood in treating conditions like neurodegenerative and heart diseases. These studies help unlock its full potential and give medical professionals insight into new therapeutic possibilities. The opportunities presented by cord blood are far from over; by continuing to study and apply its uses, we can bring healing to more patients and pave the way for future generations
