Cord blood and cystic fibrosis

Question

Hello, my 20 year-old niece was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, has many treatments and is awaiting a transplantation, my daughter is pregnant in the 4th month and she wondered if the cord blood would benefit her cousin, if so under what conditions and procedures? Thank you for your reply.

Answer

Hello and thank you for your question, which refers to the use of stem cells for therapeutic and research purposes.

Cord blood (also called placental blood) is the blood that remains in the placenta and umbilical cord after the baby’s birth. This blood is vital to the baby during pregnancy but is useless after birth. Most often, it is not recovered and destroyed while, because of its richness in stem cells, it could be used for patients with blood disorders or cancers who may be treated with bone marrow or cord blood transplantation.

Cystic fibrosis is however not one of these diseases. Cord blood that would be taken at birth of your grandson/daughter could not, in the present state of science, be used to process your niece who is waiting for an organ (pulmonary ?) transplantation... but it could be used for a patient suffering from a disease which could benefit from a cord blood transplantation.

For further explanation, I suggest you to visit the website of the General Health Foundation by clicking on the following link :

www.sangdecordon.org/don/sauver-des-vies/


You will find also a list of diseases that can, to this day, benefit from this treatment.

Hoping to have answered your question

Dr. Gilles Rault - CRCM Roscoff

03.05.2013