Cord Tissue and Rapidly Changing Medicine
Preparing your family for a healthy future doesn’t end with cord blood banking. Saving cord tissue is an additional option that many Cord Blood Registry families choose. Cord tissue stem cells are currently being studied for their ability to help the body’s natural healing process.
What is Cord Tissue?
Cord tissue is the actual umbilical cord that connects mom and baby during pregnancy. Your baby’s umbilical cord tissue contains valuable stem cells that are different from the primary stem cells found in cord blood. In laboratory studies, cord tissue stem cells have shown the ability to form bone, cartilage, and tendon.
While research using cord tissue is at an early stage and medical treatments are not available today, the future holds many possibilities. Currently, more than 30 clinical trials worldwide are exploring the use of cord tissue stem cells as therapy for conditions like:
- Heart disease
- Stroke
- Spinal cord injury
- Cartilage injury
- Liver disease
- Diabetes
As the leader in newborn stem cell banking, CBR was the first to offer families in the U.S. the opportunity to save newborn stem cells from cord tissue.
Saving the Full Medical Potential of the Cord
The full potential of cord tissue is still being explored and scientists continue to discover new, unique cells within the cord that may play important roles in future treatments.
That’s why Cord Blood Registry saves the cord tissue whole. CBR keeps the full diversity of cells to ensure your family has access to more treatments that may be uncovered as researchers continue to explore the uses of cord tissue’s many different kinds of cells.
Saving cord tissue is a simple addition to the collection process. Following the cord blood collection, a 4- to 8-inch segment of the cord is cut and placed into the CordCup® container that comes in your collection kit.
