Why is Donating Cord Blood Important?
Public Donation vs. Private Storage
For more information, please call 800.804.6703.
Indiana Cord Blood Bank
1102 Indiana Avenue (N. Stadium Drive)
Indianapolis, IN 46202
Phone: 800.804.6703
Fax: 317.917.3444
Why is Donating Cord Blood Important?
Stem cells are the building blocks of our blood and immune systems. When collected from umbilical cord blood, stem cells can provide numerous medical benefits, such as treatment for numerous types of blood diseases and cancers, anemias, inherited metabolic disorders and deficiencies of the immune system.
Collecting, preserving and banking these stem cells can provide profound medical benefits with no ethical dilemmas since these cells are a natural product of birth that would otherwise be discarded. Cord blood stem cells are often a superior choice to other stem cell sources such as bone marrow or blood.
Hematopoietic or blood stem cells have been used to successfully treat a broad spectrum of malignant and non-malignant diseases, with more than 10,000 transplants performed every year throughout the world. Sources of hematopoietic progenitor cells include bone marrow, peripheral blood, and umbilical cord blood. These cells can be obtained from allogeneic, autologous and syngenic donors. Allogeneic hematopoietic progenitor cell donors can be related or unrelated to the recipient.
Since human leukocyte antigen (HLA) compatible related donors are identified for only 25-30% of patients who could potentially benefit from a transplant procedure, much work has been done to identify unrelated donors. While the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) aids in the identification of unrelated bone marrow donors, and clinical transplantation of unrelated donor bone marrow has become more widespread, many patients (particularly those of ethnic minorities) in need of transplantation do not have identifiable donors.
As a result, investigators have begun to rely more heavily on HLA matched and mismatched cord blood from related and unrelated donors as a source of hematopoietic stem cells. The results of these studies indicate good engraftment and suggest that the incidence and severity of acute and chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) may be less than that anticipated with comparably matched bone marrow and peripheral blood.
Why was the Indiana Cord Blood Bank (ICBB) started?
The ICBB was started to develop a system to capitalize on the diversity of the central Indiana population and to take advantage of this tremendous resource that is currently being discarded. Many people may benefit both directly and indirectly through the generosity of others by these cord blood donations. Those in need of a blood stem cell transplant may benefit from this gift, and cutting edge research into enhanced use of cells derived from cord blood can only take place if research material is available. The ICBB was therefore set up specifically to facilitate the use of cord blood to ultimately enhance the health of Indiana citizens.