Haematopoietic stem cell transplantation remains the treatment of choice for a variety of benign and malignant blood disorders.1 In this modality Haematopoietic stem cell transplantation is the intravenous infusion of haematopoietic stem and progenitor cells to re-establish marrow function in patients with damaged or defective marrow. The procedure is called Bone Marrow Transplantation (BMT) if...

BACKGROUND TO THE DEBATE Umbilical cord blood--the blood that remains in the placenta after birth--can be collected and stored frozen for years. A well-accepted use of cord blood is as an alternative to bone marrow as a source of hematopoietic stem cells for allogeneic transplantation to siblings or to unrelated recipients; women can donate cord blood for unrelated recipients to public banks. H...

BACKGROUND Umbilical-cord blood has been used as the source of hematopoietic stem cells in an estimated 30,000 transplants. The limited number of hematopoietic cells in a single cord-blood unit prevents its use in recipients with larger body mass and results in delayed hematopoietic recovery and higher mortality. Therefore, we hypothesized that the greater numbers of hematopoietic cells in two ...

OBJECTIVE To review the outcome of unrelated umbilical cord blood transplantation in children using cord blood from the Hong Kong Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service. DESIGN Retrospective study. PATIENTS Records of eight patients who received unrelated umbilical cord blood transplants between 1999 and 2003 were reviewed. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Engraftment of haematopoietic cells and graft-...

Autologous cord blood transplantations are rarely applied in patients with hematologic as well as metastatic solid cancers since contamination of malignant clones is a concern. We report a case of therapy-related myelodysplasia after metastatic neuroblastoma who suffered from graft rejection and life-threatening infections after a myeloablative unrelated cord blood transplantation. The patient ...

Ballen, K.K., Wilson, M., Wuu, J., Ceredona, A.M., Hsieh, C., Stewart, F.M., Popovsky, M.A. & Quesenberry, P.J. (2001) Bigger is better: maternal and neonatal predictors of hematopoietic potential of umbilical cord blood units. Bone Marrow Transplantation, 27, 7–14. Donaldson, C., Armitage, W.J., Laundy, V., Barron, C., Buchannan, R., Webster, J., Bradley, B. & Hows, J. (1999) Impact of obstetr...

Umbilical cord blood transplantation from HLA-identical siblings provides good results in children. These results support targeted efforts to bank family cord blood units that can be used for a sibling diagnosed with a disease which can be cured by allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation or for research that investigates the use of allogeneic or autologous cord blood cells. Over 500 ...

Umbilical cord blood (UCB) has been used for transplantation in the treatment of hematologic disorders as a source of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). Because of insufficient number of cord blood CD34+ cells, the expansion of these cells seems to be important for clinical application. Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs), playing an important role in HSCs maintenance, were used as feeder layer. Apo...

OBJECTIVES This study was designed to evaluate the effects of cord blood mononuclear cell transplantation in multiple system atrophy (MSA). CLINICAL PRESENTATION AND INTERVENTION Cord blood mononuclear cells (1-2 × 10(8) cells/6 ml) were injected into the subarachnoid space using lumbar puncture in patients 1 and 2 and cisterna magna puncture in patient 3 in the 3 patients with MSA. The cord ...