[Establishment of cord blood stem cell bank and its clinical application]

To establish unrelated cord blood stem cell bank for providing potential grafts for stem cell transplantation in the treatment of some malignant and nonmalignant disorders.

All cord blood units(CBU) were obtained from full term normal vaginal and Caesarean-section deliveries. Most of RBC was removed from CBU by the hydroxyethyl starch (HES) method. CBUs were cryopreserved in liquid nitrogen using DMSO and LMD as cryoprotectants. For each CBU, automated cell count, manual viability, HLA typing, screening for infectious agents, colony-forming assays and CD34 analysis by FACS were routinely performed.

A total of 2,318 CBUs were collected, among which, 1,240 CBUs met all tests and standards. The average volume of collected qualified cord blood was (98.31 +/- 26.95) ml, the average amount of nucleated cells after separation was (1.22 +/- 0.47) x 10(9), and the average recovery percentage of nucleated cells (88.90 +/- 9.65)%. The average viability was (97 +/- 2.61)%, the number of CFU-GM (5.18 +/- 14.35) x 10(5), of BFU-E (10.35 +/- 11.55) x 10(5), and of CFU-GEMM (1.03 +/- 1.47) x 10(5). The average percentage of CD34+ cells after CBU separation was (0.5 +/- 0.32)%. Four units were positive in microbiological culture and 4 units CMV-IgM positive. In 172 patients registeredd for cord blood transplantation in Guangzhou Cord Blood Bank, the percentage of 4/6 HLA antigens matched units was 91.12%. Up to May 2000, 9 units had been used in unrelated cord blood stem cell transplantation and 6 of them were successfully engrafted.

It suggested that cord blood bank could be useful in transplantation and the establishment of cord blood bank had a good prospect.