For years, transplants of bone marrow and peripheral stem cells have been the main options to treat leukemia and other ailments. But amid a declining number of donors, transplants of umbilical cord blood — rich with hematopoietic stem cells, which can be used as a source for producing blood — are starting to attract attention from doctors and patients.
Umbilical cord blood can only be extracted immediately after a mother gives birth. When a doctor cuts the umbilical cord, about 60 to 100 milliliters of blood can be extracted from the umbilical cord and placenta. The procedure does not inflict any pain on the mother or baby.
The blood is then sent to one of the six public umbilical cord blood banks in Japan — including one in Seto, Aichi Prefecture — then stored in a freezer and, later, infused into a patient.