Does Cord Blood Transplantation Result in Lower Graft-Versus-Host Disease?: It Takes More Than Two to Tango

The first cord blood (CB) transplantation was performed in 1988 in a patient with Fanconi's anaemia [1]. Since then the use of CB as a source of hematopoietic stem cells has expanded to include treatment of various malignant haematological disorders. The majority of transplants performed have been in children [2], although more recently there have been reports of CB transplantation in adults [3]. To date over 400 cases have been reported, however these are in different centres world-wide [4, 5]. To develop and evaluate CB transplantation the European Blood and Bone Marrow Transplantation group organised a concerted action under the directorship of Professor Gluckman. This group (EUROCORD) had its 2nd workshop in Annecy, France, May 8-10, 1997. The five main objectives of EUROCORD are: 1. To standardise the methods of collection, testing and cryopreservation of CB; 2. To study the properties of haematopoietic progenitor cells and gene transfer in CB; 3. To examine the immunobiology of CB lymphocytes; 4. To co-ordinate and facilitate exchange of sera and cells from CB donors and recipients of CB transplants; and 5. To establish a European registry of patients treated with CB and to design protocols which compare CB to other types of haematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Each session of the workshop was related to an individual objective and the aim of this report is to focus on the objective and session which analysed the immunobiology of CB lymphocytes.