A lot of people commonly have questions about the umbilical cord, remaining something that is frequently mentioned in relation to childbirth and birth, it has to be something vitally important in life. Often known as a funis, an umbilical cord is simply a tube seen in placental animals linking unborn animals with the placenta.
After childbirth, the umbilical cord is often cut and it drops away or is removed resulting in a small scar on the stomach of the infant called the umbilicus or generally called the belly button or the navel.
The umbilical cord blood is mostly just plainly called cord blood. This is basically the blood which is located in the placenta and the umbilical cord as soon as the baby arrives and the cord has been cut.
The umbilical cord blood can be a extraordinary source of stem cells, unspecialized body cells which can be used to produce many various blood cells including platelets required to increase blood clotting, red blood cells that carry o2 to the cells within the body and also white blood cells that are important in the fight against diseases and foreign bodies in the body.
Stem cells are considered to be undifferentiated blood cells because they aren’t committed to specified functions yet but they can be modified to a particular developing direction that will develop a specified organ or tissue.
Differentiation is the procedure where the stem cells are changed to targeted cell forms according to the usage of stem cells. Typically, the use of stem cells center around mending existing tissues, restoring aged cells and treating many different types of illnesses and conditions.
Stem cells aren’t the same as other cells within your body in several ways, though the most critical variances which makes them distinct is because they are capable to adapt to the surrounding of the host body and also since the cells are self-renewed. Most of the people generally wonder what exactly do stem cells do within your body and confronted with these two monumental distinctions from other cells in the body, you should know that these cells can be used to address diseases.
Stem cells are often obtained from the placenta and because they are immature, they change and mature in to other sorts of cells within the body. They’ll secrete growth factors which makes them separate and replace withered cells.
Researching informs us these cells may potentially be a option for renewable transferable tissues that could possibly perform a substantial role within the management of such disorders as diabetes, Alzheimer’s, spinal-cord injuries along with other sicknesses.
Many parents are actually taking the umbilical cord blood and saving it in a technique generally known as cord blood banking. Occasionally they keep it for their own use while other people sometimes donate it to a public cord blood bank where it can be made use of for research or for possible medical applications of the stem cells.
Hey, how is this process done? Is it true that you use liquid nitrogen equipment to store the cords?
ReplyDeleteThe process begins with enrollment whether one is banking themselves with a private cord blood bank or donating publicly. A collection kit is provided to the mother (sometimes the kit for public donations are at the delivering hospital) and they will take this kit into delivery. After the child is born, a needle is inserted into the umbilical cord and the blood is drawn out into a bag, usually 250 ml in size. After the blood is collected, the sample is sent to the lab for processing. They will separate the stem cells from the other blood products and also testing is done at this stage. Once processed, they are stored in Dewar tanks (some banks have different storage processes but this is the general idea) at -196 degrees below and they will stay there unless the day comes that the stem cells need to be used. Hope this helps answer your questions and please let me know if I can answer anything else................MrCordBlood
ReplyDeleteHello! I heard that there are stem cell banks that preserve stem cells directly from the umbilical cord, and that there are blood cord banks that preserve cord blood that contains stem cells in it? What's the difference, which is better?
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