What is cord blood?
Cord blood is the blood remaining in the umbilical cord and placenta after the child is born. In the past, the cord blood was usually discarded as biological waste. However, there is a great value of cord blood for human health – the cord blood contains stem cells that do not occur in our blood later in life. The most important of all are the haematopoietic stem cells.
Cord blood stem cells are nowadays used to treat over 80 serious illnesses such as leukemia, lymphomas, organ tumors and both inherited and acquired disorders of metabolism, immunity and hematopoiesis. Modern technologies allow us to store cord blood for long periods of time.