The role of cord blood banks in the cell therapy era: future perspectives

The first successful cord blood transplant (CBT) was performed about 30 years ago. Nowadays, worldwide public cord blood banks (CBBs) that store about 700,000 units of cord blood release 3,000–4,000 units of unrelated CBs annually for use in stem cell transplantation (SCT). Only 4–5% of stored CBs are used for SCT. Recent Korean and Japanese data revealed that the utilization rates of stored public CBs were higher for units with high total nucleated cell (TNC) counts [1]. In addition to public CBBs, there are over 200 private CBBs located in 54 countries, and as of December 1, 2014, an estimated 4.03 million CB units were stored in private banks worldwide. Based on survey responses from 59 private CBBs, we identified 1,015 case reports of CBTs, of which 530 were devoted to autologous and 485 to allogeneic SCTs as of the end of 2013 [2]. The current utilization rate of public and private CBs is still low. Therefore, strategies for sustaining the profitable future of public and private CBBs have been proposed based on utilization rates and utilization scores. In previous papers I emphasized that the ability to store higher cell doses of CB must be in place before the utilization rate of banked CBs can be enhanced. Furthermore, reductions in the release costs for CB units would improve the use of banked CB. Private CBs and some stored public CBs with lower cell doses might be released for various cell therapies.