Cord blood storage is a much talked about topic these days. Due to the increased awareness of the ability of cord blood in curing many diseases related to stem cells, there is focus for more hospitals to participate in collecting cord blood.

Once cord blood is collected by these hospitals it is sent to umbilical cord blood banks for cord blood preservation. As a part of the cord blood preservation, the cord blood banks test the cord blood sent for any infection or blood related diseases.

Further the amount of cord blood present should be higher than a minimum amount that is required to perform any stem cell transplant or for any other use.

Once the cord blood is found to be safe and meets the eligibility requirements for transplantation needs, certain chemicals that will help in the preservation of the blood cells will be added and the blood will be moved to special containers where it can be held for long time

Cord blood preservation involves preserving mostly the white blood cells, which are very essential in the transplantation. As a part of the process for cord blood preservation, the cord blood cells are kept at a very low temperature.

By reducing the temperature, there is a possibility of damaging the cord cells. This is avoided by adding a preservative agent that would ensure that no damage is caused to the blood cells.

Due to the advancements in the cord blood preservation techniques cord blood remains in a good condition to use, even after a period of ten years.

Studies are still underway in determining the storage life of cord blood. Further studies are also being conducted to increase the number of stem cells in one unit of cord blood.

This will go a long way in the future use of cord blood, as the amount of cord blood that can be collected from a baby’s birth and moved to the preservation centers is very less and can fail to meet the needs in a transplant operation.

As the awareness and knowledge related to cord blood and its uses increase, the number of people ready to donate or store their cord blood will increase.

That is the reason a lot of research is being conducted in the areas of cord blood collection, storage, preservation to handle the large number of cord blood units that might become available over a period of years.