Why donate umbilical cord blood?

Only 2,5% of couples with new parents decide to donate umbilical cord blood. Why is donation important? What is it for? How should it be done?

There are still few parents who choose donate umbilical cord blood in Spain, especially after Covid. Why is this useful and minimally invasive practice still so little practiced? Perhaps not everyone knows the important uses of hematopoietic stem cells contained in the blood of the umbilical cord. Among other things, they can be used to perform transplants in patients suffering from ehematological diseases such as leukemia or lymphoma, and genetic diseases like Mediterranean anemia for example.

How many people donate umbilical cord blood?

The data analysis, performed by the national blood center on the occasion of World Umbilical Cord Blood Day, which is celebrated on November 15, reveals that, despite a trend in absolute terms that denotes a slight increase, the percentage is still very low.

According to the 2021 surveys, 250.980 births occurred in establishments equipped for collection, while that cord blood donations were only 6.277, or the 2,5% of the total. This is a slight recovery compared to the 2,1% registered in 2020. However, we are still a long way from pre-Covid levels: just think that in 2019 the percentage of couples who had opted for donate umbilical cord blood era of 3,8%.

Slight recovery in 2022

The data for 2022, although still partial, shows good signs. Between January and September, the cordon banks registered an average increase of about 2,3% in the collection of Umbilical Blood units donated for solidarity purposes. A figure that, if the final surveys are confirmed, could be indicative, especially taking into account that a new decline in the birth rate is expected after the negative record registered in 2021, when for the first time the rate of newborns did not exceed 400 .

Cord blood potential

All the hematopoietic stem cells present in cord blood, like those present in bone marrow and peripheral blood, are progenitors of all blood cell lines: red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets. Transplant of stem cells represents a lifesaving therapy consolidated for the treatment of numerous and serious congenital and acquired diseases of the blood, immunodeficiencies y Metabolic diseases. Cord blood donation is, therefore, of primary interest to the National Health Service (SSN) and its collection and storage is carried out in umbilical cord blood banks, public structures accredited by the SSN in charge of it.

let's not forget to donate

World Umbilical Blood Day which is celebrated the November 15th represents an important opportunity to highlight a essential resource such as that derived from the use of hematopoietic stem cells from umbilical cord blood. This day is an opportunity to connect the scientific context and the world of associationism to continue planning joint actions to raise awareness, well beyond the date of November 15, about the importance of a donation that has not lost its scientific relevance but that it does continue to contribute to the delineation of new therapeutic perspectives.

How the blood collection is performed

cord blood umbilical can only be collected in deliveries spontaneous without complications and in elective caesarean sections, which are performed in the absence of medical or obstetric indications, by trained and qualified health personnel. Taking takes a few minutes and is done without changing delivery procedures, after the cord has been cut and after the child has been removed from the operating field and entrusted to appropriate care. Therefore, the collection procedure does not involve any risk neither for the mother nor for the newborn and provides for the deposit of the blood in a special sterile bag. Subsequently, the unit is transferred to the Cord Blood Bank and is subjected to a series of controls and tests to define the characteristics of the blood collected and establish its suitability for storage and therapeutic use.

the blood of lanyard can be gather for various purposes:

donation with Finnish beneficial;
dedicated to newborn with ongoing pathology at birth or prominent in the prenatal period. Either for dedicated use in blood relatives with ongoing pathology at the time of collection or in the past, who can be treated with a hematopoietic stem cell transplant;
dedicated to families at risk of having children affected by genetically determined diseases for which there is proven scientific evidence of the use of umbilical cord blood stem cells;
for autologous use, or taken from a person and applied to the same, dedicated in the context of clinical trials, approved according to current legislation, intended to collect scientific evidence of a possible use of umbilical cord blood in the case of particular pathologies.

What is prohibited?

Preservation for exclusive autologous use in the absence of particular pathologies;
the institution of private banks in the national territory;
any form of advertising related with private banks.

MadresHoy