Cord blood stem cell banking and transplantation

Abstract

Stem cells have the ability to divide for indefinite periods in culture and to give rise to specialized cells. Cord blood as a source of hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) has several advantages as it is easily available, involves non-invasive collection procedure and is better tolerated across the HLA barrier. Since the first cord blood transplant in 1988, over 2500 cord blood HSC transplants have been done world wide. Since then, the advantages of cord blood as a source of hematopietic stem cells for transplantation have become clear. Firstly, the proliferative capacity of HSC in cord blood is superior to that of cells in bone marrow or blood from adults. A 100 ml unit of cord blood contains 1/10th the number of nucleated cells and progenitor cells (CD34+ cells) present in 1000 ml of bone marrow, but because they proliferate rapidly, the stem cell in a single unit of cord blood can reconstitute the entire haematopoietic system. Secondly, the use of cord blood reduces the risk of graft vs host disease. Cord Blood Stem Cell banks have been established in Europe and United States to supply HSC for related and unrelated donors. Currently, more than 65,000 units are available and more than 2500 patients have received transplants of cord blood. Results in children have clearly shown that the number of nucleated cells in the infused cord blood influences the speed of recovery of neutrophils and platelets after myeloablative chemotherapy. The optimal dose is about 2 x 10(7) nucleated cells/kg of body weight. The present study was carried out for collection, separation, enumeration and cryopreservation of cord blood HSC and establishing a Cord Blood HSC Bank. 172 samples of cord blood HSC were collected after delivery of infant prior to expulsion of placenta. The average cord blood volume collected was 101.20 ml. Mononuclear cell count ranged from 7.36 to 25.6 x 10(7)/ml. Viability count of mononuclear cells was 98.1%. After 1 year of cryopreservation, the viability count on revival was over 82.1%. Related cord blood stem cell transplantation was carried out in three cases at Army Hospital (R&R), Delhi Cantt.

Role of nucleostemin in growth regulation of gastric cancer, liver cancer and other malignancies

“…From the results of RT-PCR, Northern blot and Slot blot analysis, we found that all these malignant tumor tissues, benign tumor tissues, and benign hyperplastic tissues had high levels of NS expression, which indicated that NS played an important role in the selfrenewal of these cancer cells and hyperplastic cellls. At the same time, NS expressed in human placental tissues also at a high level, possibly due to the existence of a mass of placental stem cells [20][21][22][23] . A small quantity of NS expression could be found in normal human muscle tissues by RT-PCR, however no expression could be detected by Slot blot and Northern blot analysis.…”

Stem cells in microfluidics

“…[44][45][46] In addition, human HSCs are defined by their ability to replenish all blood cell types and their ability to self-renew, containing both multipotent and lineage committed progenitors which give rise to all the blood cell types. 47 The presence of HSCs in cord blood is an attractive cell source that is readily available and can be collected noninvasively with a lower occurrence of cytomegalovirus infection. 48 Moreover, HSCs extracted from cord blood for transplantation have been widely used, and are capable of decreasing human leukocyte antigen ͑HLA͒ mismatches from a related family donor.…”

Frequency pattern of blood group systems among two healthy groups at albaha province, saudi arabia; a cross sectional, laboratory based study

“…5 The Rh (not Rhesus) system is the second most important blood group system in transfusion medicine because antigen-positive RBCs frequently immunize antigen-negative individuals through transfusion and pregnancy. [4][5][6] ABO and Rh gene phenotypes differ widely across races and geographical boundaries [7][8][9] . Many studies were carried out on the frequency of ABO and Rh phenotypes in different populations 10 .…”