What is Cord Blood?
Your baby’s umbilical cord blood has the power to save lives. While growing in the womb, the umbilical cord of a newborn supplies the growing baby with nutrient-rich blood from the placenta. The blood found in the umbilical cord is referred to as cord blood. Cord blood is a rich source of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) which have the power to self-duplicate & grow into other specialized type of cells. This makes them the ideal choice to be used in stem cell transplants, a type of personalized cell therapy in regenerative medicine for treating diseases.
What can Cord Blood do?
As of today, stem cells from cord blood be used to treat over 80 diseases including cancers, metabolic disorders, immune and blood related diseases as part of regenerative medicine. However, doctors see more potential & are currently researching the use of cord blood to treat other diseases including diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer's disease, plus much more. HealthBanks prides itself on not only being there for parents to help them store their child's cord blood, but also for participating in the research to help find treatments for diseases.
Why Bank?What is Cord Tissue?
Cord tissue is the actual umbilical cord itself & is collected by cutting off a section of the umbilical cord after the child is born. The cord tissue is cut up into small pieces which are then mixed with a special cryoprotectant for safe preservation. In years past, cord blood was the only portion of the umbilical cord material to be collected for stem cell retrieval. Since HealthBanks was the first to introduce the concept of cord tissue banking in 2008 by isolating Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) from collected cord tissue, families now have the option to store not only cord blood but cord tissue & isolated MSCs as well.
What can Cord Tissue do?
Cord tissue contains a different type of stem cells called mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) that are able to develop into specific types of cells such as cardiac, nerve, bone, muscle & many more types of cells. Because cord tissue is still being researched, preliminary results show incredible potential for use in treating a wide variety of conditions such as cancers, heart disease, diabetes, strokes, nerve repair, degenerative diseases, accidents, burns, injuries, plus much more!
MSCs from Cord Tissue
Most cord blood banks only store the cord tissue as a whole piece or cut up in smaller pieces. HealthBanks is proud to be the only private cell bank that offers advanced MSC processing from cord tissue. Using our proprietary technology & carefully developed clean room practices, our team grows MSCs from cord tissue in our on-site laboratory here in Irvine, California. Our team monitors the growth over many days to make sure they are growing healthy until enough of them are grown which are then preserved using our cryogenic freezers.
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