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What is Cord Tissue? Why is it unique?

The tissue found in your baby’s umbilical cord contains a special kind of stem cell — different from cord blood stem cells — that research indicates has the potential to treat medical conditions affecting cartilage, muscle, and nerve cells. Research suggests that cord tissue stem cells have the unique ability to rapidly regenerate and differentiate themselves – an ability that could have invaluable ramifications for future cord tissue therapies.19 ViaCord’s cord tissue banking service includes the collection, extraction, and storage of these remarkable cells.

What's as exciting as cord blood? Let's talk tissue.

Umbilical cord tissue provides an abundant source of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). These special cells are being studied in great detail for their ability to regenerate bone, cartilage, tendons and neurons. To be clear, there are no medical treatments currently available today using stem cells extracted from cord tissue.

However, a significant amount of research is underway to better understand their potential value, underscoring their importance to the scientific community. Researchers are focusing on a wide range of potential treatment areas, including Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, liver fibrosis, lung cancer, and sports injuries.

Newborn stem cells are found in both the cord blood and the surrounding tissue. Saving both – cord blood and cord tissue – means more stem cells, more treatment options, and more healing potential.7 For detailed information, visit our Emerging Research page.

How cord tissue collection works

Just like ViaCord’s cord blood banking service, our tissue banking includes the collection and preparation of treatment-ready cells. After your doctor or midwife has collected your baby’s cord blood, they will collect as much of the umbilical cord as possible and place it in the sterile, protective storage cup provided in your ViaCord collection kit. Both the storage cup and cord blood collection bag are then placed in the kit, which is picked up by a medical courier and transported to ViaCord’s stem cell processing lab and storage facility. There, ViaCord’s lab specialists extract the stem cells from the umbilical cord tissue, prior to storage, to prepare the cells for future medical use.

Treatment-ready cell storage

Some banks simply store cord tissue. Not ViaCord. We extract cord tissue stem cells prior to storage so they are "treatment-ready". The additional processing time requires more time and effort upfront, but we believe it will deliver more value in the long run.

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8x More Cells

Research indicates that by extracting the stem cells before storage, cell yield increases eightfold in comparison to the cell yield from frozen tissue. 14 It all goes back to our obsession with quality and our commitment to putting families first.

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These special cells have researchers smiling. Learn more.

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