lifecellav – RueAmi

Have you ever noticed those cute, colourful building blocks children play with? Each of the blocks supports the other in forming a structure that eventually gets bigger and stronger, even as new blocks get added to them. Fascinating, isn’t it? But what if we told you that our body too had similar building blocks. Yes, it’s true. And these building blocks are called stem cells. Stem cells are undifferentiated cells with the ability to regenerate or form into new, specialised cells like blood cells, brain cells, lung cells, etc.1. But did you know that the umbilical cord, which is often discarded after birth, is a rich source of stem cells, and it plays a huge role when it comes to stem cell preservation benefits? As stem cell therapy continues to break new grounds in the world of regenerative medicine, it’s important more than ever to harness their power. And what better source to turn to than umbilical cord! In this blog, we’ll discuss the benefits of stem cell preservation at birth while also throwing some light on how it’s done. So, let’s get started:

All About Stem Cells In The Umbilical Cord

Besides umbilical cord, adult stem cells are also found in bone marrow and peripheral blood. When compared to the other two, umbilical cord blood is an easily-available, rich source of stem cells. Yet, it has always been discarded as a medical waste for years2!

However, cryo-preservation of cord blood stem cells through programs like LifeCell’s community stem cell banking, is now proving to be a gamechanger. Let’s learn how the process works and the benefits of preserving umbilical cord stem cells.

What Is Umbilical Cord Blood Stem Cell Banking?

Soon after the baby’s birth, the umbilical cord is clamped at both ends and cut. Then the doctor collects the blood by inserting a needle into the cord and then transfers it to the collection bag. Thus, the collection process is pain-free both for the mom and the baby. This collection bag is then put inside a tamper-proof collection kit by a paramedic from LifeCell who then sends it to the lab through a secure transit network.

Once the sample reaches the lab, it undergoes lab testing to analyse its cellular health, potential microbial contamination or infections, and blood grouping. To know more about the collection process, read our blog.

After the lab analysis, the blood sample is wrapped and sealed in cryo-bags (volume capacity:25ml), which are then frozen and transferred to cryo-vessels. The cells are frozen under -196℃ and preserved in vapor-phase liquid nitrogen within stainless steel cryo tanks.

Now let’s dive into what we set out to achieve first – discuss the benefits of preserving umbilical cord stem cells!

Stem Cell Preservation Benefits In a Community Bank

Here’s a quick checklist for you to understand the umbilical cord preservation benefits. Let’s go:

Easy To Collect & Preserve

One of the important umbilical cord preservation benefits is easy to collect & Preserve. Collecting stem cells from other sources like bone marrow typically takes 3-4 hours and may require repeat collection too4. However, umbilical cord blood banking collection is not only quick and easy, but is also non invasive, pain free and less time consuming.

Easy To Access

The second benefit of stem cell banking is that it is easy to collect and preserve. Stem cells are often used to treat diseases that require transplantation. And this means that you’ll have to look for a matching donor, get the sample tested in the lab, and then wait for the stem cell collection

On the contrary, umbilical cord blood is collected at birth, analysed in the lab, tested and cryo-preserved for future use. So, when the need arises, it is readily available. In LifeCell’s Community banking program, the member can also access and retrieve the matching cord blood units for as many times as necessary, for no extra cost.

Greater Chances Of Finding A Match

And with LifeCell’s community stem cell banking program, the member can access its humongous registry of 75,000+ cord blood units of Indian origin. This ensures that there is a >97% chance of finding a matching donor.

Also, once you bank your baby’s cord blood stem cells, there’s no added worry of the donor backing off at the last minute.

Beneficial To The Baby & Entire Immediate Family

Most private and public stem cell banks limit the baby’s collected stem cell sample’s benefits only to the baby, or at the most, to parents. However, with LifeCell’s Community banking program, not only the baby, but the baby’s parents, baby’s siblings, maternal and paternal grandparents can also benefit. Isn’t that quite a handful?

Having said this, let us tell you that there are many more benefits of preserving umbilical cord stem cells apart from those mentioned above. To understand them better, read our blog on 10 Reasons To Bank Your Baby’s Stem Cells With LifeCell.

The Final Verdict

When it comes to ensuring the wellbeing of our loved ones, we never like to make compromises and always choose the best, don’t we? The same applies to health care too. And what better way to ensure lifelong good health than by taking advantage of stem cell banking benefits at birth?

With LifeCell’s Community Stem Cell banking program, not only your baby, but parents, immediate siblings, and maternal & paternal grandparents can avail the complete benefits. So, if you’re expecting a baby soon, don’t miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reap the benefits of preserving umbilical cord stem cells of your baby at birth. And we assure you that this will be one of those decisions that you’ll always be proud of!

Article Source:

This article was originally published on:

https://www.lifecell.in/blog/stem-cells/benefits-of-stem-cell-banking

We all love the freedom to choose, especially when it comes to shopping! But none of us ever shop blindly, do we? Instead, we all start with comparing the plethora of available product options and pick the best one for ourselves. This thumb rule is applied for picking even the most trivial stuff. But when it comes to choosing the right stem cell bank for preserving your baby’s precious stem cells, shouldn’t you be as prudent? Would you blindly pick just any bank or figure out what works best – community stem cell banking, private banking or public banking?

Now that we’ve got you thinking, allow us to help you. Having decided to preserve your baby’s umbilical cord blood stem cells, the next step is, obviously, choosing the right bank. In this blog, we give you a low-down of the 3 different banking models – Private, Public and Community – to help you understand what they are and make an informed choice.

What Is Private Banking And How It Works

In private banking, parents pay a fee to store their baby’s cord blood. This fee, which is charged for processing and storage, varies from one private bank to another . However, the Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP) recommends that families in India should preferably store their baby’s cord blood stem cells in public banks rather than private banks 1. This is because the likelihood of the baby using its own stem cells (autologous) is <0.04% 2. Presently, autologous cord stem cells cannot be used in the treatment of metabolic disorders, haematological cancers, or diseases of genetic origin.

Now, let’s move on to the public banking model and understand what makes it different from private banking.

What Is Public Banking And How It Works

A public bank works on the concept of voluntary donation. Parents willingly donate their baby’s umbilical cord blood to public banks, thus creating a common pool for public usage. This way, anyone in need of a cord blood unit for transplantation treatment can approach the public bank.

However, while donating, parents forfeit their rights on the donated cord blood unit. For their part, the public banks ensure they collect qualified cord blood units from healthy pregnancies and disburse it to those in need, for a cost 3.

Having analysed both private and public banking systems, we now need to understand that the best option is a combination of both – the privilege of a private bank and common pool sharing of a public bank. Bridging this gap is LifeCell’s Community Stem Cell Banking. Here’s how:

What Is Community Banking And How It Works

Right at the onset, let us tell you that LifeCell is the only company in the world that offers a Community Stem Cell Banking program for cord blood storage.

This program is a hybrid of both public and private banking models with added benefits. Parents sign up to preserve their baby’s stem cells through an easily-affordable annual fee. Their baby’s cord blood stem cells are then added to a common pool which can be accessed anytime by the parents and other members of the community, for no extra cost.

LifeCell’s Community Stem Cell Banking model also addresses the challenges otherwise faced by Private and/or Public banks, like:

1. Large Inventory

LifeCell boasts of a large inventory of 60,000 qualified & consented cord blood units (as opposed to 6500 of a public inventory).

2. Improved Chances Of Finding A Good Ethnic Match

Experts suggest that for an Indian patient to find a >97% chance of finding the right donor match, the size of the inventory should at least be 50,000 cord blood units 4. LifeCell’s 60,000 qualified & consented cord blood available units thus improve chances of finding a good match for Indian ethnicity.

3. Complete Protection For The Family

LifeCell’s community stem cell banking program benefits the baby and also immediate family members like parents, siblings, and grandparents. With its add-on programs like Family Floater, these benefits can also be extended to the siblings of the parents.

These benefits are exclusively offered to members of LifeCell’s Community Stem Cell banking members. Through this model of sharing preserved stem cells exclusively amongst its community members, LifeCell meets the recommendations of medical bodies such as Indian Association of Paediatrics 5.

Now, having understood the working module of each type of stem cell banking program, let’s take a look at the benefits each of them offers and the limitations they come with.

Private v/s Public v/s Community Banking- Benefits & Limitations

Before we wrap up, here’s a detailed comparison of each stem cell banking model and benefits they offer. Check this and figure out what works best for you:

It’s A Wrap!

We hope that this detailed blog on the different models of stem cell banking programs has been helpful and informative to you. As you know by now, some of the banking programs come with grave limitations. Before you zero-in on one, make sure you keep in mind what each model offers, it’s the benefits, costs, and service quality. LifeCell, being a pioneer of Community Stem Cell Banking in India, comes with years of experience, international accreditations, dual storage site facilities, state-of-the-art laboratories and many such benefits, to name a few.

It is not always that we make important decisions like preserving the baby’s cord blood stem cells. This once-in-a-lifetime decision not only impacts the baby’s future health but can also serve as a lifelong health assurance for the entire family, if chosen wisely. So, why not be doubly sure about it and follow the thumb rule.