Helping to Protect Your Baby’s Future With Newborn Stem Cell Preservation

When you’re planning for your family, there are so many unknowns, so many factors beyond your control. Such is the case for all prospective parents, regardless of whether you’re considering using frozen donor egg or not. And once your child is born, your thoughts almost automatically turn to their future, looking for ways to protect their well-being. 

Fortunately, there is one decision you can make even before your baby is born to potentially help protect not just their future health but your whole family’s: preserving your baby’s newborn stem cells.   

Understanding Why Newborn Stem Cells Are So Valuable 

The blood and the tissue that make up your baby’s umbilical cord are both rich sources of powerful hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). These stem cells are often referred to as “smart” cells because of their ability to locate injured cells in the body and begin the process of healing.¹

Additionally, because newborn stem cells are younger, they are likely to be more flexible than adult stem cells from other sources such as bone marrow, and have a greater matching potential.² This is especially good news for donor-conceived children, who ordinarily have access to only one parent’s stem cells. In fact, babies are a 100% match for their own cells, siblings have a 75% chance of at least a partial match, and biological parents are always a partial match, but usually require more stem cells than are typically collected from cord blood.³ For the past 30 years, these power-packed newborn cells have been used to help more than 40,000 patients in a variety of ways using both transplant and regenerative medicines.   

Transplant Medicine 
Cord blood is ideal for stem cell transplants:² procedures that use healthy blood and immune-forming stem cells to help heal damaged blood or immune systems in the instances of over 80 conditions.⁴ That includes blood disorders such as sickle cell anemia, as well as cancer, Tay-Sachs disease, and more. 

Regenerative Medicine 
Cells from cord blood are also being used with regenerative medicine research, while the use of cord tissue and their mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are being investigated as well. This particular approach seeks to heal tissues and organs by replacing tissue or stimulating the body's own repair mechanisms in conditions with underlying inflammation or tissue injury. ⁵,⁶  That includes issues as serious as heart defects, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, autism, Alzheimer’s disease, and more. 

Initially, clinical trials used only a child’s own newborn stem cells. However, matched sibling and unrelated donor cord blood are being explored. And with more than 500 clinical studies currently investigating the potential of cord blood and cord tissue, there are exciting new discoveries in both transplant and regenerative medicines being made all the time.   

Helping Families Tap Into the Potential of Newborn Stem Cells 

At Donor Egg Bank USA, we are always looking for ways to help provide our families with even greater peace of mind — from day one to even after your baby is born. That’s why we provide all our Donor Egg Bank USA families with free access to preserving and storing your baby’s newborn stem cells through the Cord Blood Advantage® Program via our sister company, Cord Blood Registry® (CBR®).  

Enrolling in this valuable program is easy. Once you do, you’ll receive your official collection kit to take with you to the hospital on delivery day. Your doctor or midwife can perform the collection after the birth and help you arrange a medical courier to have it delivered to the Cord Blood Registry facility.  

The Cord Blood Advantage Program includes complimentary: 

• Cord blood and cord tissue processing 

• Courier service and your first year of storage  

• 24-hour customer care 

• Genetic counselor support 

A $2,840* value, these are all services to support what could be a life-saving decision to preserve your baby’s cord blood or cord tissue.  

Take Charge of Your Baby’s Future 

So, even though there may be any number of things we can’t predict or control about the future, deciding to preserve your baby’s newborn stem cells may offer you more protection for your baby (and potentially your whole family), right from the start. And because we believe so strongly in the value of cord blood and cord tissue preservation, we want to make it available to all our Donor Egg Bank Families with the Cord Blood Advantage Program. It’s one of the very best decisions you can make today, to help protect your baby tomorrow.    

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Resources

1. Munoz J, Shah N, Rezvani K, et al. Concise review: umbilical cord blood transplantation: past, present, and future. Stem Cells Transl Med. 2014;3:1435-1443 
2. Ballen K. Update on umbilical cord blood transplantation. F1000Res. 2017;6:1556. Published 2017 Aug 24. doi: 10.12688/f1000research.11952.1.   
3. Butler MG, Menitove JE. Umbilical cord blood banking: an update. J Assist Reprod Genet. 2011;28(8):669-676. doi:10.1007/s10815-011-9577-x    
4. Mayani H, Wagner JE, Broxmeyer HE. Cord blood research, banking, and transplantation: achievements, challenges, and perspectives. BoneMarrow Transplant. 2020;55(1):48-61. doi:10.1038/s41409-019-0546-9  
5. AABB. Regenerative Medicine. [Accessed April 2022]. https://www.aabb.org/newsresources/ resources/cellular-therapies/facts-about-cellular-therapies/regenerative-medicine    
6. www.clinicaltrials.gov (Accessed 04/30/20) 
*After the first (free) year of storage, if you decide to continue, you will be responsible for each subsequent year of storage (currently priced at $185 per year). Annual storage rates are subject to change. 
 
The use of cord blood is determined by the treating physician and is influenced by many factors, including the patient's medical condition, the characteristics of the sample, and whether the cord blood should come from the patient or an appropriately matched donor. Cord blood has established uses in transplant medicine; however, its use in regenerative medicine is still being researched. There is no guarantee that potential medical applications being studied in the laboratory or clinical trials will become available. 
 
Cord tissue use is still in early research stages, and there is no guarantee that treatments using cord tissue will be available in the future. Cord tissue is stored whole. Additional processing prior to use will be required to extract and prepare any of the multiple cell types from cryopreserved cord tissue. Cbr Systems, Inc.’s activities for New York State residents are limited to collection of umbilical cord tissue and long-term storage of umbilical cord–derived stem cells. Cbr Systems, Inc.’s possession of a New York State license for such collection and long-term storage does not indicate approval or endorsement of possible future uses or future suitability of these cells.