SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) — University Health Care is expanding its Umbilical Cord Blood Program to give more Utah mothers the option of donating blood from discarded umbilical cords of healthy newborns. University Health Care today announced a partnership with St. Mark’s Hospital to collect cord blood units voluntarily donated by its patients.
Through the Umbilical Cord Blood Program, mothers are able to donate blood from the discarded umbilical cord and placenta after the birth of a baby. Umbilical cord blood is rich in adult stem cells, similar to bone marrow, and is used to treat diseases such as leukemia, lymphoma, metabolic storage disease and aplastic anemia.
“Umbilical cord blood is something readily available that is normally discarded as hospital waste, yet it can save lives. In Utah we’re in a unique position because of our high birth rate to make a significant contribution to the national inventory,” said Linda Kelley, Ph.D., director of the Cell Therapy Facility and professor of internal medicine at the University of Utah School of Medicine. “We are pleased to have St. Mark’s as our partner in the Umbilical Cord Blood Program. This partnership is an important first step in our goal to grow this program throughout the state and collect this life-saving resource.”
Unlike bone marrow, cord blood poses less risk for transplant rejection, is more readily available, and tissue matching is less stringent. Approximately 10,000 cord blood transplants have been performed worldwide.
St. Mark’s has already begun collecting cord blood, with unanimous support from its obstetricians and gynecologists. Since last August, the hospital has collected 327 units.
“St. Mark’s Hospital was selected by University Health Care because of the high number of healthy babies we deliver. When we were asked to participate, the answer was an immediate yes,” said Marilyn Love, director of Labor and Delivery at St. Mark’s Hospital. ”As a life comes into this world, another life can also be saved. This is an amazing program, and we are proud to support it.”
The collections at both hospitals are done by University Health Care phlebotomists. When a mother is admitted into the Labor and Delivery unit, she is told about the program and can give her consent to participate. The mom and baby both must be deemed healthy, the baby must be at a minimum of 36 weeks gestation, and the delivery must be non problematic in order to be eligible. A phlebotomist collects the blood from the discarded umbilical cord and placenta. The cord blood units are then sent to a public bank to be tested, processed, and logged into a national database. University Health Care partners with StemCyte International Cord Blood Bank located in Arcadia, Calif., one of nine banks nationwide.
There is no cost to the hospitals or the families to participate. As part of the National Cord Blood Program, the program is funded through a federal grant resulting from the Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act of 2005. According to a 2007 assessment by the Institute of Medicine, there are approximately 10,000 cord blood units stored in the national inventory. It is estimated that 150,000 units are needed.
About 60 percent of the cord blood units collected through University Health Care are eligible for public banking. The cord blood units ineligible for the national inventory are added to the University’s stem cell repository to aid research. Medical researchers are exploring methods for expanding stem cells and evaluating the cell’s responses to therapeutic drugs.
University Health Care launched the Umbilical Cord Blood Program at University Hospital in May 2007 with the support of physicians in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and on the transplant team. Since that time, the program overall has collected 946 units. University Health Care is actively pursuing partnerships with other hospitals and health systems and expects to secure participation of additional hospitals by the end of the year.
----Information from: University Health Care
