PathCare Labs launches ‘Cord Care’ – cord blood stem cell bank in India

Banking life saving umbilical cord blood of your child will offer a potential resource for treating a growing number of ailments, including cancer, leukemia, blood, and immune disorders.

Cord care, a stem cells bank to store umbilical cord blood of children as a potential resource for treating ailments, including cancer and immune disorders, has been launched in the south Indian city of Hyderabad by PathCare Labs.

Cord Care is a division of PathCare Labs, a Hyderabad based diagnostic service provider with a state-of-the-art central clinical reference laboratory at Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh.

Cord Care’s cord blood stem cell storage facility is designed to meet global norms for processing and cyro-preservation of samples efficiently.

Cord Care’s cord blood stem cell bank facility include a fully automated stem cell processing section, testing laboratory, cryo-preservation centre, IT and logistics support centre.

“Now parents can bank their baby’s cord blood with Cord Care,” said Dr. G.V. Prasad, Managing Director and CEO of PathCare Labs (P) Ltd.

Cord Care has a facility to store upto one lakh samples said Dr Prasad.

The collection, processing and preservation of cord blood is done at a fee of Rs. 75,000 and the samples are stored in cryogenic vaults for a period of 21 years.

Cord Care is South India’s second and India’s fifth cord blood stem cell banking facility, according to the release.

Cord Care’s stem cell bank has more than 600 collection centers spread across India, PathCare Labs stated in a press release.

The cord blood stem cell bank is expected to be affiliated and certified by regulatory agencies such as DBT (Department of Bio-technology), DCGI (Drug Controller, Government of India), US-FDA and American Association of Blood Banks (AABB).

What is cord blood stem cells banking?

Cord blood is the blood that remains in the newborn’s umbilical cord after the cord has been cut and discarded.

The blood is not drawn from the baby, but rather drained from the umbilical cord after the baby is born. The blood along with the placenta is otherwise discarded.

Cord blood, like bone marrow, has been considered a rich source of stem cells, which can be used in medical treatments.

Cord blood contains stem cells that can save lives. A variety of cell types exist in cord blood including hematopoietic stem cells (HSC), mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) and epithelial stem Cells (ESC).

While cord blood is routinely discarded after birth, cord blood banking allows families to save this resource for potential future medical use.

Stem cells are the body’s “master” cells that regenerate and turn into the cells that form all of the tissues, organs, and systems in the human body.

Stem Cell are so tiny that it would take a million of them clustered together to form a pin head.

Stem cells can regenerate into over 200 types of tissues. Every stem cell divides in to a potential muscle cell or red blood cell or nerve cell.

Stem cells have been used in treating more than 80 life-threatening diseases including different types of cancers, thalassemia, blood and metabolic disorders, immunodeficiency ailments and autoimmune disease since 1988.

The first use of stem cells in medicine was to regenerate healthy blood and immune cells in cancer patients after they received chemotherapy.

Scientists are focusing on using cord blood stem cells for the treatment of brain injury and juvenile diabetes and regenerative medicine.

Stem cells research also shows promise in diseases like Alzheimer’s disease, cartilage regeneration, liver disease, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, spinal cord injuries etc.

Trials are also underway using stem cells to treat lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, liver disorders and heart aliments.

Patients requiring a stem cell transplant will receive these stem cells from one of three sources: embryonic, bone marrow, circulating blood, or umbilical cord blood. The first two exist in all healthy adults, but cord blood can only be harvested and stored at birth.

It is easier to match transplant patients with cord blood than with the two sources of adult blood.

Cord blood stem cell transplants have better success rates than bone marrow transplants and are preferred because these cells are young.

It has also been scientifically found that cord blood stem cells have better tolerance of HLA mismatches.

Once the body is fully grown they lie dormant in the marrow of our bones, in the cavities in our eye, under the nose, in our stomach and even in our skin waiting for the signal for transform into whichever tissue or organ that is needed.

By storing newborn’s cord blood thier families could fall back upon this biological resource should the need arise.

Stem cell banks are large scale cryogenic facilities that preserves cord blood at around -196ºC. It takes just 5 to 10 minutes to collect cord blood since the cord blood is collected after the baby is born and the umbilical cord has been clamped and cut. It is a very simple and painless process for both mother and child.

To date, there have been more than 10,000 umbilical cord blood stem cell transplants reported worldwide.

In India the industry put-together has banked about 25,000 cord blood units over the last three years.

Stem cell preservation is a huge business opportunity in the international market and as per estimates the global stem cell market is expected to become USD 10 billion opportunity over next 10 years.

Analysts estimate that Indian stem cell banks, which are currently at Rs. 100 crore, would generate Rs. 2,700 crore in revenues by 2012, accounting for 17 per cent of the world market.

The world market for stem cell therapy is projected to increase from an estimated Rs 1,44,000 crore ($ 30 billion) in 2009 to Rs. 4,60,800 crore ($96 billion) by 2015.