Cord blood is found in the blood vessels of a newborn's umbilical cord. For more information about cord blood, please click here.

Cord blood is collected at birth after the baby has been delivered and the umbilical cord is clamped and cut. The collection can be done either when the placenta is still in the womb (in-utero) or outside of the womb (ex-utero).

Cord blood contains blood-forming stem cells which can be used for the life-saving treatment of autoimmune, neurological and metabolic disorders, such as leukemia.

The main limiting factor for cord blood transplantation is the number of cord blood stem cells available [1-6]. A minimum of twenty million cell per kilogram is typically needed for a transplant, this number increases in some diseases. A consequence of this is that most cord blood unit stored can only be used before adulthood. With CANULEX™, a higher yield of cord blood stem cells is achieved through our proprietary design which provides the following benefits:

1. Better therapeutic outcome during transplantation

2. Extends the use to adult patients

3. Save more for other purposes

References

1. Barker, J. N. et al. (2001). Survival after transplantation of unrelated donor umbilical cord blood is comparable to that of human leukocyte antigen-matched unrelated donor bone marrow: results of a matched-pair analysis. Blood, 97, 2957-2961.

2. Barker, J. N. et al. (2002). Searching for unrelated donor hematopoietic stem cells: availability and speed of umbilical cord blood versus bone marrow. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant, 8, 257-260.

3. Delaney, C., Ratajczak, M. Z., & Laughlin, M. J. (2010). Strategies to enhance umbilical cord blood stem cell engraftment in adult patients. Expert Review of Hematology, 3(3), 273–283.

4. Laughlin, M. J. et al. (2001). Hematopoietic engraftment and survival in adult recipients of umbilical-cord blood from unrelated donors. N Engl J Med., 344, 1815-1822.

5. Rocha, V. et al. (2001). Comparison of outcomes of unrelated bone marrow and umbilical cord blood transplants in children with acute leukemia. Blood, 97, 2962-2971.

6. Wagner, J. E. et al. (2002). Transplantation of unrelated donor umbilical cord blood in 102 patients with malignant and nonmalignant diseases: influence of CD34 cell dose and HLA disparity on treatment-related mortality and survival. Blood, 100, 1611-1618.

A needle connected to a blood bag is typically used for the collection of cord blood. The doctor or nurse uses the needle to pierce into the umbilical vein of the umbilical cord and the blood is collected in the blood bag. The blood bag is then sent to a blood bank for processing and storage.