A Review of Procedures Involved in Human Umbilical Cord Blood Banking and Transplantation

Cord blood hematopoietic stem cells are widely used as an alternative source for hematopoietic stem cells transplant. Increasing rate of patients who need hematopoietic stem cells transplant and many advantages of cord blood in comparison to bone marrow hematopoietic stem cells, have promoted banking of cord blood units. Cord blood banking requires accurate steps in donor selection, cord blood collection, processing, cryopreservation and finally screening and testing of the units. The main limitation of umbilical cord blood transplantation is cell dose and resolving this limitation is vital in avoiding frequent problems in hematopoietic stem cells transplant. Transplantation of more than one unit and ex vivo expansion of umbilical cord blood units, decrease these limitation. Furthermore, the international standard guidelines have been published by the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT)-NetCord to improve the quality of units and simulation of cord blood banks activities. This review presents a general overview on cord blood banking and related activities and its improvement during last two decades.