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Cord blood > A brief history of cord blood therapies
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A brief history of cord blood therapies
The therapeutic properties of cord blood were first demonstrated Paris in 1988 when a patient affected by a rare life threatening congenital disorder, Fanconi’s Anaemia, was successfully treated.
Since then more than 8,000 cord blood transplants have been performed worldwide, mostly to treat acute leukaemia in children and adults when neither a sibling nor a suitable adult volunteer donor is available.
Since 2002, The Anthony Nolan Trust has been importing cord blood to treat UK patients who cannot find a suitable cord on the NHS cord blood bank. Last year we imported 77 cord bloods for UK patients from cord blood banks as far afield as the United States and Japan.
...and looking to the future.
The unique biological properties of umbilical stem cells and the regulatory cells of the immune system contained in cord blood mean that there are many potential new areas of medical treatment that will be developed using the amazing properties of these cells. These include:
- solid organ transplantation such as liver, kidney and heart
- treatment of autoimmune diseases like Type 1 diabetes, AIDS, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and multiple sclerosis
- regeneration and repair of injuries including spinal cord injury
- treatment of damaged blood vessels as in stroke and other similar conditions
