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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2009 Aug 4.
Published in final edited form as: Cell Transplant. 2007;16(2):151–158.

Table 2.

Umbilical Cord Blood Advantages

  • Easy procurement.

  • No risk or discomfort to donors.

  • Low incidence of viral contamination (38.2%) compared to BM (5)

  • Able to be stored at cryogenic temperatures indefinitely without significantly affecting cell viability.

  • Immediately available and easily shipped.

  • There is a high immune tolerance of UCB cells because they are unable to generate cytotoxic T-Lymphocytes, which respond to allogenic antigens. UCB cells are also unable synthesize the proinflammatory cytokines interferon-γ(IFNγ) and tumor necrosis factor-α(TNFα) (58).

  • UCB has an abundant source (~1% of the mononuclear fraction) of both hematopoietic and nonhematopoietic stem/progenitor cells, which is comparable BM (64,65).

  • There is a large number of colony forming unit-granulocyte macrophage (CFU-GM) compared to adult sources (10).

  • Procurement and use are not associated with the same ethical considerations as embryonic and fetal tissues.