The Best Kept Medical Secret?? Public Cord Blood Donation

Anyone who has had a baby recently knows what I'm talking about. They stack information fliers in your Ob's office, they send little trifold brochures in the mail, each with an adorable photo of a toddler regarding with interest his bellybutton. They are private commercial cord blood banks.

The pitch: Collect your child's cord blood and pay us to store it for you as "biological insurance" in the event the child or a sibling should need stem cells later in life.

The price: $1500 or more up front for processing, plus $100/month for--well--ever, I guess, to store it for you in the event you should need it later.

The kicker: Your child's own cord blood, at least given current medical technology, is not nearly as likely to help him as someone else's is.

How's that, you ask? Currently, cord blood is mostly used to rescue endangered bone marrow (hematopoietic tissue) in the recipient. For most children in need of transplant, it is because their own stem cells are lacking a necessary function (as in Hurler Syndrome) or their bone marrow is producing malignant cells (as in leukemia). In either category of stem cell transplant candidates, your own banked cells won't help you, because they probably have the same problem you do. You need donor cells.

If your cord blood is privately banked, not only will it be unlikely to help you, it will be unlikely to help anybody else. Private banks keep your cord blood for you and your immediate family alone. Unless a sibling needs a transplant (the odds of a "perfect" sibling match are 1 in 4) and you are a perfect match, your cord blood will likely sit around in its apartment for as long as someone continues to pay its rent.


However, umbilical cord blood that is donated to a public cord blood bank has a very good chance of helping someone in need, maybe even someone you love.


Unrelated donor cord blood is increasingly favored over bone marrow for transplant of hematopoietic cells in children, largely because is easier to match. Both bone marrow and cord blood are "immune competent"--meaning they make immune cells and therefore cause graft-versus-host disease--but cord blood is more flexible in matching, as it hasn't "learned" as much about mounting immune responses and dedicating cells to specific jobs yet, and so is not as specifically tailored to protect its individual yet. Remember how babies are said to have immature immune systems? This is actually a bonus for cord blood recipients. It helps to make the graft more versatile.


(Attention docs and other pros: please help flesh out or correct my armchair science any time you see the opportunity. :-) )

So...

You can help your family and your community by donating your baby's cord blood to a public bank. If you're not in a baby-producing phase of life (or frame of mind) you can help by making a financial contribution to public cord blood banking and matching, or you can email the National Cord Blood Program and ask for literature to wallpaper your pediatrician's or ob/gyn's office. If you need more motivation, please read this beautiful letter to an anonymous cord blood donor. To find out more, and spread the word about public cord blood donation, please visit: http://www.nationalcordbloodprogram.org/index.html