Umbilical cord blood headed to Singapore
22/8/2005 7:39
Cai Wenjun/Shanghai Daily news
A sample of
umbilical cord blood from the Shanghai Stem Cell Bank is expected to be escorted
to Singapore to help a middle-aged woman with leukemia later this week.
This
is the first time that a local sample of umbilical cord blood has been sent
abroad, and bank officials say they decided to offer it for free.
Medical
staff were doing a final examination on the sample over the weekend and the
results will be known soon.
The sample was donated by a mother who delivered
a baby on June 26. She donated the umbilical cord blood to the bank, whose
50,000 samples are the biggest store of stem cells in China.
The 35-year-old
Singaporean woman was diagnosed with leukemia in July and her family contacted
stem cell banks in Singapore, and Taiwan as well as on the mainland.
"Our
primary check found this matching sample and we informed her doctors in
Singapore. Professionals are doing further exams," said Song Hongying, director
of the Shanghai Stem Cell Bank. "Currently, 1,000 mothers have donated umbilical
cord blood to our bank. Five transplants have been conducted and three patients
recovered very well."
Stem cells from umbilical cord blood can be
transplanted into leukemia patients instead of bone marrow - a technique that is
considered more effective and easier to conduct.
As the stem cells in such
blood is still in primary stage, they are less likely to be rejected than a bone
marrow transplant.
Samples are collected immediately after delivery of the
baby and kept in a liquid nitrogen container, where they can be preserved for 20
years.
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