NATIONAL CORD BLOOD PROGRAM
The cord blood is collected into few minutes after a child’s birth from the delivered placenta by nurses working with the hospital's Obstetricians, Obstetric service nurses and other staff. This unit is no risk to mother or child.
After that, cord blood units are transferred to the laboratories and remove excess red blood cells and plasma to reduce the volume of each cord blood unit to 20 ml. The remains contains of the nucleated blood cells, including the hematopoietic stem cells. They combine these cells with a preservative (DMSO) that protects the cells during freezing into overwrap of freeze bag. And then, the Cord blood units are frozen and stored at -196°C in liquid-nitrogen until needed.
Cord blood CANNOT be collected when : 1. The mother had an infectious disease during pregnancy that could have been transmitted to the infant before or during birth and might be present in the cord blood, or 2. The infant has one of several genetic or inherited diseases that might affect a patient if the cord blood was given as a transplant, or 3. There is a family history of a "transplantable" genetic disease that might be present in the baby, but for which there are currently no diagnostic tests., or 4. The pregnancy was the result of an egg (ovum) donation, or 5. The family has arranged to store the cord blood with a private cord blood bank.
A blood sample is taken from the mother . The mother's blood is tested for her HLA type to make sure no mistake was made in taking the blood sample and no Cytomegalovirus (CMV can cause hearing loss and, rarely, causes retardation if the infection occurs early in pregnancy), no HBV, HCV, human immune deficiency virus (HIV, the AIDS virus), and syphilis.
Qualification of Cord Blood Units
- The unit contains 900 million or more total nucleated cells (TNC) before processing.
- The unit has been typed for HLA-A, -B and -DRB1 (A and B at low resolution and DRB1 at high resolution)
- The mother's HLA type is compatible with that of the cord blood unit
- A sample of cord blood is available in tubing attached to the cord blood unit for confirmatory HLA typing
- The infant has no identified genetic disease that might be transmitted in the cord blood
- The unit and the mother's blood are negative for infectious disease markers, including HBsAg and antibodies to HCV, HIV and Human T-cell lymphotropic virus
- There are no significant risks for blood transmissible infectious diseases
- The cord blood unit was processed and frozen following the National Cord Blood Program validated to maintain nucleated cell viability.
Processing is completed within 36 hours of collection.
Nguyen Van Tinh, PhD