Slide 25

Placental and Cord-Blood Stem Cell Transplants

Cord and placental blood are retrieved in a single procedure right after a child is born. Nurses remove the majority of the red blood cells and the plasma (which aren't needed for transplant) and concentrate the immune stem cells. Then they add an agent to protect these cells from damage during storage at extremely low temperatures. This helps to assure that enough blood-forming stem cells are cryopreserved successfully for later infusion into a patient.