Cord Tissue FAQs
How is the umbilical cord tissue collected and does it hurt?
As with cord blood, the collection process is easy and painless. First, your baby’s umbilical cord is clamped and cut, and the cord blood is collected. Your health care professional will then collect as much of the umbilical cord tissue as possible and place it into the sterile, protective cup provided in your ViaCord collection kit.
Is the new collection kit bulky and hard to transport?
Nope! All our kits are designed to keep your baby’s cord blood and cord tissue safe, while also being easy to transport. Many moms pack it in their hospital overnight bag so it’s ready to go when they are!
What is the process for freezing cord tissue stem cells?
The same freezing process is used for both cord blood stem cells and cord tissue stem cells. ViaCord collects the umbilical cord tissue and then extracts the stem cells, prior to cryopreservation. This guarantees that your baby’s stem cells are treatment-ready when he or she needs them.
Does the ViaCord Sibling Connection program include the collection of cord tissue stem cells?
Yes. This program provides the ViaCord Complete Newborn Stem Cell Package™, which includes processing and five years of storage at no cost to expecting parents who have a child in need of a transplant and meet the other enrollment requirements of the program. Any expecting family with a child who has an established diagnosis of a disease that is currently treatable with sibling cord blood may be eligible. Your child’s doctor will need to complete a medical referral form. Visit our Sibling Connection web page for more information.
What diseases are being treated with mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) found in cord tissue?
Currently, there have been no medical treatments in humans using MSCs. All research using cord tissue stem cells is in pre-clinical studies, and there are no guarantees that therapies will be developed in the future. You can learn more about the pre-clinical studies on animal models by visiting ourcord tissue stem cell research web page.
Will saving the cord tissue stem cells impact the number of stem cells that can be saved from the cord blood?
Nope. Cord blood is contained inside the umbilical cord vein; cord tissue stem cells are part of the umbilical cord itself, the walls that surround the vein and arteries that carry blood and waste back to the placenta. Because of this, cord tissue and cord blood are two separate sources of stem cells and can be processed and stored separately with no impact on each other.
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