Trends in cord blood banking

Umbilical cord blood (UCB) is a source of hematopoietic precursor cells for transplantation. The creation of UCB banks in 1992 led to the possibility of storing units of UCB for unrelated transplants. The distribution of cell contents in historical inventories is not homogenous and many units are not, therefore, suitable for adults. The aim of this study was to analyse our UCB bank inventory, evaluate the units released for transplantation and calculate the cost of the current process per unit of UCB stored. Three study periods were defined. In the first period, from January 1996 to January 2006, the total nucleated cell (TNC) count acceptable for processing was 4-6×10(8) and a manual processing system was used. In the second period, from October 2006 to July 2010, processing was automated and the acceptable TNC count varied from 8-10×10(8). In the third period, from January 2009 to June 2010, an automated Sepax-BioArchive procedure was used and the accepted initial TNC count was >10×10(8). Within each period the units were categorised according to various ranges of cryopreserved TNC counts in the units: A, >16.2×10(8); B1, from 12.5-16.1×10(8); B2, from 5.2-12.4×10(8); and C,