Pool Banking: The Only Solution for Cord Blood Banking

There are at least 142 public and 25 private UCB banks world over, of which 4 public and 13 private banks located in India. In India, insufficient quantity of just about 5000 cord blood units is available in public banks. The chance of obtaining a matched donor for an Indian recipient from foreign registries is meagre due to ethnicity and exorbitant cost. In such cases, unrelated cord blood transplantation can be a lifesaving source of hematopoietic stem cells as cord blood is advantageous over bone marrow or peripheral blood in terms of rapid availability, human leukocyte antigen mismatch tolerance, and lower incidence of graft versus host diseases. The therapeutic utility of these cord blood stem cells led to development of storing the cord blood for future use in banks. Even though private cord blood banks store UCB for 21 years, the volume for transplantation purpose may not guarantee the effective weight per kilogram requirement of stem cells for diseased child’s need. As HLA match is ethnically dependent, the required public bank size varies according to ethnicity of that area and HLA polymorphism. Cord blood pool banking advocates that all cord blood units stored as part of private banking be made available in a cord blood pool to find the best matched cord blood unit for stored persons suffering from haematological disorders. It make umbilical cord blood stem cell transplants a viable option, accessing unrelated cord blood (allogenic) as a solution, and having inventories of all the ethnic group will provide chance to get matched donor. The article emphasizes the new revolutionary concept for overcoming the hurdles of cord blood banking.