But first of all let us first know what cord blood is. Cord blood comes from the placenta, particularly the umbilical cord which is attached to the placenta. The placenta and umbilical cord used to be considered as a waste product and the medical professionals discard them after a delivery. However, recent developments in research have revealed that the umbilical cord blood has stem cells which have the ability to make new blood cells. Such discovery has led to the rise of cord blood banking.
Cord blood stem cells can be used for treatment of common diseases such as anemia, leukemia, sickle cell disease, lymphoma, heart diseases, diabetes, bone injury, and others. But another unique benefit of cord blood is that it can be used as an alternative to bone marrow transplant. Cord blood can serve as a source of young stem cells for regenerative medicine. What this means is that cord blood stem cells have the ability to regenerate blood cells but also treatment for tissue injury by repairing injured tissues.
Stem cells can cause regeneration and can treat a wide variety of diseases besides just producing new blood cells. Cord blood stem cells are also an alternative source for regenerating other organs. A first reason why it’s better than other stem cells like bone marrow stem cells is because the cells are younger and they have high regenerative ability.
Another important aspect of cord blood cells is that you don’t need to puncture the bone to extract bone marrow.Bone marrow puncture and extraction can be a very painful process. In some cases, you need to put the patient under general anesthesia and patients with degenerative diseases will be hard to put on general anesthesia.
With these benefit and edge over bone marrow stem cells, it’s no surprise that cord blood stem cells are considered by many experts as a better alternative to bone marrow stem cells. Cord blood stem cells are still a recent discovery and research promises more developments in the future.
