A Chinese expert has confirmed the usefulness of umbilical cord blood in treating several blood diseases, but called for intensified supervision on cord blood banks.

 

Lu Daopei, a Chinese Academy of Engineering academician, said cord blood transplant in curing diseases is technically feasible. It is considered rich in primitive stem cells that form the different types of blood cells and is widely believed to be a cure for leukemia and other fatal blood diseases.

 

The blood can be collected from the umbilical or placenta after child delivery.

 

Incomplete statistics from the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research show cord blood transplant without kinship reached 6,000 globally in 2007, compared with 2,300 in 2006.

 

"Though cord blood transplant is gaining attention from doctors and patients, every step of cord blood collecting, transporting, testing and storing must follow strict procedures," Lu said.

 

Earlier this month, more than 100 parents in Shanghai were preparing to sue a biotech company suspected of concealing the fact that their umbilical cord blood was tainted.

 

Lu Yi, an office lady in the eastern Chinese economic hub and mother of a two-year-old girl, said the Shanghai Stem Cell Technology Co. Ltd. charged 16,060 yuan (2,200 U.S. dollars) to collect umbilical cord blood in delivery rooms.

 

It would keep it frozen at minus 196 degrees Celsius for 20 years. The company promised if Lu's baby had some blood disease in future, the cord blood collected could be used to cure the child.

 

Chinese Ministry of Health approved the first qualified umbilical cord blood bank in Beijing in September 2002. Currently, the country has four umbilical cord blood banks approved by the ministry or local health departments and three more are coming.

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(Xinhua News Agency January 31, 2008)