Stem cell transplants have been in the news only recently. But this history of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation goes back to the first bone marrow transplant in 1968. Followed by the first peripheral blood cell transplant in the early 1980s. And the first umbilical cord blood transplant in 1988.

The science of cord blood preservation and transplantation has continued to progress. Today, cord blood transplants have clinically proven to save lives.

In John Wagner's study, 44 pediatric patients with life-threatening lympho-hematopoietic disorders received allogeneic sibling cord blood transplants. The survival rate was 62%, with only 6% of patients experiencing graft vs. host disease. These were outstanding clinical results compared to historical bone marrow transplant data.

Gluckman's research analyzed the outcome of cord blood transplantation from related versus unrelated donors. Gluckman found that the survival of related recipients was more than twice that of unrelated. The same study also showed far less incidence of graft vs. host disease with related transplants. These results should be taken into account when considering the benefits of cord blood preservation for families versus public banking.

And recent research studies demonstrate that cord blood can be frozen for at least 15 years without loss of cell viability.

ViaCord is particularly proud of the 36 successful transplants to date using our technology.

Currently, most cord blood transplants involve treating pediatric patients, primarily because stem cell counts in a single cord are usually not large enough to treat adult patients. That may change in the future as ViaCord and others are working to develop pioneering cell expansion technologies. ViaCord currently has three expansion technologies: Selective Amplification, co-culture and adherent technology. If successfully developed, these technologies would enable scientists to increase the number of stem cells derived from an umbilical cord unit. In pre-clinical trials, ViaCord expansion technology was able to achieve a 35-fold increase in the number of hematopoietic stem cells, enough to treat the average adult patient.

The future of cellular medicine holds other exciting possibilities. Most important is the potential to direct the differentiation of hematopoietic stem cells into specific tissue types: