recipients are traditionally children who require fewer stem cells than adults. One advantage of cord blood is that it does contain significant numbers of stem cells that can be stored indefinitely. It also poses no medical risks to the donor, and has a low graft-versus-host-disease (GVHD) threat even when combined with a non-matched donor. Minority children stand to gain the most benefits from umbilical cord blood (UCB) because there is such a small reserve of donated minority blood and exact matches aren’t always necessary with cord blood. The most promising discovery with umbilical cord blood is the lower risk associated with GVHD than traditional bone marrow transplants.GVHD carries the biggest potential for complications in patients following bone marrow stem cell transplantation. Cord blood stem cells significantly lower a patients chance of this rejection of newly implanted cells.If a recipient of a stem cell transplant receives cells from a donor who does not match their tissue-type the result could be death. Families who have a history of disease should consider saving their babies cord blood. The banked cord blood can be instrumental in treating a blood disease or rebuilding a weakened immune system. Donated bone marrow is still the most prevalent in stem cell transplants although it is much more difficult to harvest. New research reveals that cord blood from both matched and unmatched donors is successful when transplanted. With the discovery that cord blood stem cells have the ability to engraft with a non-matched donor, recipients are given hope in a shorter waiting process that doesn’t necessarily involve exact matching. HLA typing is done at the time of collection, which decreases the search time for a suitable recipient. There are six major HLA genes. The production of HLA proteins takes place on chromosome six. There is only a 25% chance that siblings will provide suitable donor stem cells to each...
