Umbilical Cord Blood

Abstract

D'Agati Alfio, Leanza Vito, Leanza Gianluca, Carbonaro Antonio, Pafumi Carlo

Umbilical cord blood (UCB) is widely considered as a potential alternative to bone marrow for haematopoietic stem cells. Efforts on UCB research have now taken a step further with the establishment of numerous cord blood banks throughout the world.

In 15 months (from December 1999 to February 2001) we obtained 863 cord blood units by withdrawing residual blood from the placenta.The method of blood collection consisted of puncturing, with an 18-gauge needle, the umbilical cord vein and withdrawing the blood into a sterile bag immediately after clamping and newborn assistance. The blood was collected when the placenta was still in utero. Analysis of the blood was also performed to exclude any bacterial contamination. Among them 429 were collected from newborns delivered vaginally (Group 1) and 434 were collected from caesarean sections (Group 2).

In this study we evaluated the volume of blood collected and the number of CD34+ cells contained in the foetal cord blood and we demonstrated that these two parameters were similar between the two groups; The higher median volume of blood collected from infant delivered through a caesarean section seems mainly due to the different clamping time rather than to the kind of delivery

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