Cord blood contains HSC (haemopoeitic stem cells ). These proliferative cells are about one log fewer in number than can be obtained from bone marrow or peripheral blood HSC donation, but they have greater proliferative and colony forming capacity, and are more responsive to some growth factors. Also because they are more 'naïve' than proliferative cells from bone marrow, they seem to produce fewer complications .
In the future, cord blood might be a useful source of stem cells other than haemopoietic precursors. Reports suggest that not only are mesenchymal and neural precursor cells present but that some cord blood cells, present in extremely low frequency, may have the capacity to develop into many different lineages including cartilage, fat cells, hepatic (liver)and cardiac (heart) cells.
Research is still at an early stage and despite the amount of interest in the field, the therapeutic role for such cells remains speculative.
One-fifth of stem cell transplants performed for young patients (less than 20 years old) are cord blood transplants, mostly for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia or acute myelobastic leukaemia and other inherited blood diseases like thalassemias.
There is substantial speculation about the use of cord blood non-HSC in treatment of a variety of acute and chronic conditions but there is increasing evidence of the use of fetal-derived stem cells in the treatment of neurological disease and a number of preclinical studies in animal models, which suggest an improvement in cardiac function following infusion of umbilical cord stem cells for acute myocardial infarction. There has also been a report of the infusion of cord blood stem cells in a patient with longstanding spinal injury.
However all these studies are still in their early preliminary trials and as such not yet clinically approved for patient treatment even though commercial cord blood banks site these in their brochures to promote cord blood banking.