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On 31 May 2010, 14 072 567 bone marrow/apheresis donors registered in 44 countries and 426 501 cord blood units banked in 26 countries for public use were available to treat candidates to haemopoietic stem cell transplant lacking a family related compatible donor. Despite these impressive numbers, additional efforts are required to ensure that all patients, including those from ethnic minorities, can promptly find a suitable donor. Governments, clinicians, scientists, patients and stakeholders should share the responsibility to develop haemopoietic stem cell donation and cord blood banking models able to fully match all patient needs. In this regard, current scientific evidence and prevalent opinions among expert clinicians support solidaristic cord blood donation for public use against the alternative option of commercial autologous cord blood storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the answers of NetCord-associated banks and national societies for haematology to several questions related to cord blood banking, including the existence and role of a cord blood bank, the importance of storing of samples of autologous cord blood, and the indications for storing directed cord blood samples.

Cord blood (CB) units are increasingly used for allogeneic transplantation. Cell dose, a major factor for CB selection, is evaluated before freezing by each CB bank, using various techniques. This may introduce variability and affect the prediction of cell recovery after thawing, or haematopoietic reconstitution. Forty-two children were transplanted at the same institution with unrelated CB units. All units were thawed and evaluated at the same cell therapy facility, using standard procedures. We investigated: (i) factors that affect cell loss after thawing, and (ii) the importance of CD34+ cell doses. Prefreeze and post-thaw CD34+ cell doses were statistically correlated, thus suggesting that variability in numeration techniques used by different CB banks does not compromise the biological and clinical value of these figures. CD34+ cell recovery appeared to be correlated with the absolute number of CD34+ cells per frozen bag. Infused CD34+ is the cell dose that better correlates with platelet reconstitution delay; in addition, when using a quartile comparison, haematopoietic recovery appeared to be related with prefreeze and post-thaw CD34+ cell doses. We conclude that enumeration of CD34+ cells in CB units is of biological significance, and may help select CB units and identify patients at risk of delayed recovery.Bone Marrow Transplantation (2007) 39, 453–460. doi:10.1038/sj.bmt.1705618; published online 5 March 2007 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents comments on the study "Clinical-Grade Cell Purification From Thawed Cord Blood: An Example of Translational Research," which was published in a 2003 issue of "Bone Marrow Transplantation" journal. Source of hemopoietic stem cells for transplantation; Development of protocols for graft manipulation; Median purity and recovery of CD34 positive cells.