Umbilical Cord Blood / Darah Tali Pusat

What is Cord Blood?

After a baby is born and the umbilical cord is cut, some blood remains in the blood vessels of the placenta and the portion of the umbilical cord that remains attached to it. After birth, the baby no longer needs this extra blood. This blood is called placental blood or umbilical cord blood: "cord blood" for short.

Cord blood contains all the normal elements of blood - red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets and plasma. But it is also rich in hematopoietic (blood-forming) stem cells, similar to those found in bone marrow. This is why cord blood can be used for transplantation as an alternative to bone marrow.

Cord blood is being used increasingly on an experimental basis as a source of stem cells, as an alternative to bone marrow. Most cord blood transplants have been performed in patients with blood and immune system diseases. Cord Blood transplants have also been performed for patients with genetic or metabolic diseases.  More than 80 different diseases have been treated to date with unrelated cord blood transplants.

List of diseases that can be treated with cord blood :

Leukemias

Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemi

Acute Myelogenous Leukemia

Acute Biphenotypic Leukemia

Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemi

Chronic Myelogenous Leukemi

Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia

Juvenile Chronic Myelogenous Leukemi

Juvenile Mono-myelocytic Leukemi

Leukemia, Unspecifie 

Lymphomas

Non-Hodgkin's Lymphom

Hodgkin's Diseas

Epstein-Barr Virus / Lymphoproliferative Disease

Autoimmune Lymphoproliferative diseas

Lymphoma, unspecified 

Myelodysplasias

Myelodysplastic Syndrome

Myelofibrosis 

Bone Marrow Failure Syndromes

Amegakaryocytic Thrombocytopenia

Diamond-Blackfan Anemia

Dyskeratosis Congenita

Fanconi's Anemia

Parxysmal Nocturnal Hemoglobinuria

Reticular Dysgenesis

Severe Aplastic Anemia, Unspecified

Shwachman-Diamond Syndrome

Sideroblastic Anemia 

Hemoglobinopathies

Sickle Cell Disease

Thalassemia

Immune Deficiencies

Common Variable Immune Deficiency

Congenital Immune Deficiency

DiGeorge syndrome

Griscelli Syndrome

Lymphocyte Adhesion Disease

Nezelof Syndrome

Omenn Syndrome

Severe Combined Immune Deficiency (SCID)

Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome

X-linked Hyper-IgM Syndrome 

X-linked Immune Dysregulation Polyendocrine Enteropathy

Histiocytosis

Familial Erythrophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis

Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis

Hemophagocytic Syndrome

Histiocytosis

Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis (Histiocytosis-X)

X-Linked Lymphoproliferative Disease 

Metabolic/Storage Diseases

MPS, not specified

Hurler Disease (MPS type IH)

Hurler-Scheie Disease (MPS type IS)

Hunter's Syndrome (MPS type II)

Sanfilippo Disease (MPS type III)

Morquio Syndrome (MPS type IV)

Maroteaux-Lamy Syndrome (MPS type VI)

Adrenoleukodystrophy

Alpha-mannosidosis

Amyloidosis

Aspartylglucosaminuria

Austin's Disease (Multiple Sulfatase Deficiency)

Fucosidosis

Gangliosidosis

Gaucher's Disease

I-cell Disease (Inclusion Cell Disease)

Infantile Ceroid Lipofucoscinosis

Krabbe Disease

Lesch-Nyhan Syndrome

Metachromatic Leukodystrophy

Neiman-Pick Disease

Osteopetrosis

Sandhoff Disease

Sialidosis

Tay Sach Disease

Wolman Disease 

Neutrophil Disorders

Chediak-Higashi Syndrome

Chronic Granulomatous Disease (CGD)

Congenital Neutropenia

Kostmann Syndrome 

Platelet Disorders

Congenital Thrombocytopenia

Glanzmann's Thrombasthenia

Other Malignancies

Breast Cancer

Multiple Myeloma (Plasma Cell Disorder)

Neuroblastoma

Scientists are investigating the possibility that stem cells in cord blood may be able to replace cells of other tissues such as nerve or heart cells. Whether cord blood can be used to treat other kinds of diseases will be learned from this research.

Birth is a one-time opportunity to help society by donating your baby's cord blood.
Cord blood contains stem cells that can save lives. Patients requiring a stem cell transplant can receive stem cells from one of three sources: bone marrow, circulating blood, or cord blood. The first two exist in all healthy adults, but cord blood can only be harvested and stored at birth. It is much easier to match transplant patients with cord blood than with the two sources of adult donors. This is important for patients who come from minority or mixed race backgrounds. Hence, diverse cord blood donations to public banks can save many lives right now.

  Birth is also a one-time opportunity to store your baby's cord blood for your own family.
Transplant patients recover better when they receive stem cells from a related donor, instead of an unrelated donor. If a first degree relative of your baby needs a stem cell transplant, the baby's cord blood stem cells could be a suitable match. Plus, there are now emerging therapies in which children use their own cord blood stem cells to help the body repair itself. In the future, children whose parents saved their cord blood will have better access to those treatments.

There is virtually no reason not to save your child's cord blood.
Some people are concerned that the clamping of the umbilical cord should be delayed so that the baby can receive the blood in the cord. Studies have shown that babies whose cord clamping was delayed by two minutes have slightly less anemia up to six months after birth. However, there is no benefit to waiting more than two minutes to clamp the cord and collect the cord blood.
  
How donor-patient matching is determined

• - We all get half of our genetic material from each parent.
     Only a few genes, those that determine HLA type, are important to match a patient with a donor.
• - The genes that are important for matching tend to be inherited as a group (called a haplotype).
     As a result, two children of the same parents have a 25% chance of being a perfect match to each other.
• - Genetic variations are also grouped by race.
     Hence, a patient has a better chance of finding a donor among his or her own racial group.   

So parents, if you're going to have a baby, will u considering to donor your baby's cord blood? You can find a cord blood bank in your country.