Storage
Stem Cell Storage - How does the process work?
If you’re pregnant and are considering storing your baby’s stem cells, the first thing to do is to contact a company offering the service for advice. You’ll also need to check with your local maternity hospital or midwife to make sure they can collect an umbilical cord blood sample, as some health authorities are seemingly not keen for their midwives to carry out this procedure.
Stem Cell Storage - Before The Birth
Around 30 days before the birth or up to seven days afterwards, you’ll need to have some blood tests done according to strict guidelines from the Department of Health, to check that your baby’s stem cells will be healthy enough to store and protect against cross contamination of blood samples. Some of these tests, such as the one for HIV, are routine in pregnancy anyway but the blood tests will also need to be repeated six months after your baby’s birth.
Nearer to the birth, your chosen company will then send you a sterile collection kit and your midwife will use this to collect a blood sample from the umbilical cord once she’s sure you’re both doing well. This sample is then sent by courier to the relevant laboratory where your baby’s stem cells will be separated from the blood, frozen and stored, again according to strict guidelines.
Stem Cell Storage - Are There Any Risks? If So, What Are They?
No. when extracting the cells for stem cell storage, the blood is taken from the umbilical cord which is normally just discarded after the birth and the midwife will only collect once she is happy that mum and baby are both ok. Your baby no longer needs this excess blood anyway so think of it as a useful surplus that just happens to be an amazing source of stem cells from your baby.
However, stem cell extraction and stem cell storage for adults is much more invasive (see The alternatives, below) as it requires taking a sample of bone marrow under local anaesthetic.
Stem Cell Storage - Are There Any Other Ways This Can Be Done?
It used to be thought that stem cell storage was a one-off opportunity at birth but at least one company is now offering the collection and storage of stem cells from young people and adults, using their bone marrow (as long as it’s healthy).
The sample is taken under local anesthetic, usually from the hip as it’s one of the largest bones in the body and rich in bone marrow, another rich source of stem cells. There’s no real risk in the procedure and it requires a very short recovery period of an hour or so. The stem cell storage process means the cells can be stored for 10 years or more and could potentially help with health problems, such as heart disease, in later life.
However, there is some debate among experts about the purity of stem cells taken from children and adults as they will have been exposed to environmental factors whereas umbilical cord stem cells are ‘pure’ in the sense that they haven’t had the same exposure over a period of years.
Bone marrow transplants are already used to treat diseases, such as leukaemia, as they provide a rich source of stem cells too but it’s notoriously difficult to get an exact donor match with bone marrow whereas using your own stem cells means little or no chance of rejection.
Stem Cell Storage - What Are The Moral Issue’s?
Morally, there’s no real concern about stem cell storage and extraction from bone marrow or the umbilical cord as they’re essentially by-products from the body or the birth.
However, the ethics become complex when it comes to the separate issue of using cloned embryos for stem cell research, currently being undertaken using strict guidelines from the Medical Research Council. Up until now, research has centred on using unwanted embryos after IVF treatments but now cloning has enabled scientists to create embryos under strict licence from the Government, to use them for research purposes over a limited number of days. Supporters point out that such research has the potential to unlock cures for various serious and even life-threatening diseases, such as Parkinson’s but opponents are opposed to what they see as the artificial creation of life purely for research, to aid future stem cell storage.