baby registry: Law creates cord blood bank initiative

By Cynthia T. Pegram
cpegram@newsadvance.com
June 28, 2006



What some once considered medical waste may become a resource to save lives through the new Virginia Cord Blood Bank Initiative.

Cord blood is the blood that remains in the umbilical cord and the placenta after a baby is born and the cord is cut. The blood is rich with immature stem cells, which when donated to adult or child can move into the bone marrow and quickly begin to reproduce blood cells.

Stem cells are also a promising area of medical research for many disorders.

A law that creates the Virginia Cord Blood Bank Initiative goes into effect in July.

The concept had an odd birthing for a life-giving plan – a legislative sub-committee’s discussions about terrorism response.

The committee was looking at Virginia’s ability to react to terrorist attacks, “and discovered literature on collecting or treating radiation injuries from dirty bombs, using stem cells,” said Dr. David E. Suttle, director of the office of Family Health Services at the Virginia Department of Health.

Like some cancers, exposure to high levels of radiation can kill the body’s ability to produce blood cells, which normally arise from the bone marrow. Radiation could come from a dirty bomb, or be released with damage to a nuclear power station or from a nuclear weapon.

Stem cells from cord blood can be frozen for years and still be viable.

Because collecting and using umbilical stem cells does not involve the death of a fetus, said Suttle, the idea of storing the resource for use if needed was attractive.

The use of embryonic stem cells in research is a hotly debated issue.

The Health Department was designated as lead agency to establish the bank and to work with the state’s medical schools and other public and private organizations.

Dr. Roy C. Ogle, a professor of neurosurgery at the University of Virginia, is director of the Center for Human Stem Cell Translational Research at the UVa Medical School.

“The intentions of the state were to help establish a cord stem cell bank or system throughout the state so we don’t throw away this precious resource,” said Ogle.

“Umbilical stem cells are one of the most promising types of multi-potent stem cells. They have far more potential than we (once) imagined,” he said.

Virginia has nearly 100,000 births a year. Every healthy expectant mother in the state will have the option to contribute to the cord blood bank. The law is very specific that it must be a voluntary donation by the mother.

Centra Health’s Virginia Baptist Hospital has more than 2,000 births a year. Right now, cord blood is seldom collected and usually only when needed to determine if RH factors will be a problem, said Glen McIver, director of the Centra Lab.

Dr. Howard Podolsky, Centra senior vice president and chief of the medical staff, said that the state’s cord blood bank initiative represents a wonderful opportunity for stem cell research on diseases that include Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, as well as Type I and Type II diabetes.

Carolyn Jacques, a Centra Health vice president, said that setting it up would mean asking mothers a few more questions in order to get their permission to use the blood, “and make the mothers aware that it would be strictly voluntary.”

According to the National Cord Blood Registry, each year about 20,000 adults and children with potentially fatal illnesses need a stem cell transplant.

The state’s big medical school-affiliated hospitals already have blood banking facilities and the critical and the most costly component - a cell separator.

The device divides the blood into red cells, white cells, platelets and plasma. Should the school agree to host the cord blood bank, the state would most likely provide a freezer for storage, Suttle said.

Eventually private hospitals could be used if they had the space and high volume of births.