The first question expecting parents should ask is : How many live stem cells will my child have access to after birth and throughout their life?
When expecting families consider storing their child’s cord blood, many assume all cord blood banks offer similar benefits. Cord blood banks were established 30 years ago for families to privately store their baby’s cord blood for a matched sibling’s use in transplant medicine. As the years went by, given the low probability for use and limited number of live cells in cord blood samples, the value of stored cord blood proved to be LOW.
However, there is a massive difference between a cord blood bank and a personal stem cell bank. A personal stem cell bank is for storing your baby’s own (autologous) stem cells for more common uses compared to traditional cord blood banks that limit use of the cells to rare diseases with a matched sibling, making it quite unlikely you’ll ever benefit from your stored cells.
The recently published New York Times articles, “Promised Cures, Tainted Cells: How Cord Blood Banks Mislead Parents” and “What Parents Should Know About Cord Blood Banking ,” by Sarah Kliff and Azeen Ghorayshi, reveal the numerous limitations of traditional cord blood banks. talking to more than 60 doctors, parents, executives, former sales representatives and quality control managers, they concluded that these cord blood and tissue storage facilities have consistently misled customers and doctors regarding: low cell counts, contamination, limited usability, experimental trial rejection, continually paying for cells with uncertain value, new trials only using blood from public banks.
Dr. Robert Brodsky, chief of the hematology department at Johns Hopkins University notes that cord blood “is not the preferred source of stem cells at virtually every institution in the United States.” Although umbilical cord stem cells are the child’s youngest adult cells at birth, there are often too few cells natively available in the cord to be useful.
Dr. Jan Boelens, a pediatric oncologist at Memorial-Sloan Kettering, states that patients sometimes ask if they can be treated with their child’s cord blood the parents have paid for over the years to store. The answer is usually NO. “It’s never enough.” Says Bolens. Another Oncologist from UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital, Dr. Johathan Gutman, gave a powerful quote. “The potential, actual, legitimate uses of privately banked cord blood unit are almost nonexistent.
According to the article, when customers asked to withdraw their samples for unapproved autism treatments, one company had to tell them that it wasn’t possible. The company releases cells only for transplant use or clinical trials approved by the FDA. Others that tried to withdraw cells for cerebral palsy and autism were told their cells weren’t usable due to contamination or small number of cells. There is a limited number of cells left in the cord blood and they can’t be replicated or grown. Imagine paying years of storage (potentially tens of thousands of dollars) to be told your stored samples is not even useful?
According to Dr. Joanne Kurtzberg, the cord blood pioneer at Duke University, it is not uncommon to be rejected for an FDA regulated clinical trial due to a contaminated sample or low stem cell count. Out of the 254 patients who were evaluated for treatment this year, more than 50% were rejected because of low-quality cells from private banks.
Dr. Sabrina Solt is a Leading regenerative medicine doctor and anti-aging expert. She sat down with VitalCells to discuss her thoughts on cord blood banking and why she didn’t bank with her 1st two children in a cord blood bank.
“I’ve been practicing regenerative medicine since 2013, with a heavy focus on stem cell therapy that began in 2016. In that time, I’ve had the privilege of treating thousands of patients and learning so much about the power of stem cells, both scientifically and clinically. One of the things I learned was just how much was lacking in the cord blood industry – from both a newborn banking and clinical application perspective. At the time of writing this, I am pregnant with my third child and had never previously opted to bank cord blood with either of my two babies, despite my knowledge of how powerful stem cells are. This was because of two main reasons:
1) No bank could ever tell me exactly how many stem cells we would have access to, and
2) No bank could guarantee I’d ever actually be able to easily access them.
Given these limitations why is cord blood banking still a popular choice? It often boils down to a lack of knowledge.
The second question expecting parents should ask is : Do you grow LIVE stem cells before preserving the umbilical cord or cord blood and provide live stem cell counts?
The NYT article doesn’t address the storage of cord tissue limitations from these storage banks or the importance of live stem cells from the newborn sample. Many cord blood banks store the umbilical cord as a whole segment, not extracting and growing stem cells first, sometimes resulting in a cell that cannot be used.
These live mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in cord blood and cord tissue are critical for banking autologous (your own) stem cells and have more value in regenerative medicine vs. cord blood samples. They are the child’s youngest adult stem cells and has access to utilize them in conjunction with their medical practitioner.
Like cord blood samples, cord tissue has a limited amount of stem cells. The GREAT thing about these cells is they CAN be naturally self-replicated, in a sterile and healthy environment, by a credible stem cell bank. This step is critical for these limited number of cells, BEFORE preservation. Otherwise, you won’t know how many live cells you have, if they will replicate and if they are usable. It’s a risky investment that likely won’t give you any return!
VitalCells was started by American Cell Technology (ACT), the largest autologous (personal) stem cell bank in United States that store’s clients own stem cells from their adipose (fat) tissue or bone marrow. They saw the limitations (many of which are mentioned in this article) in traditional cord blood/tissue storage banks, and knew they needed to do better.
They accept and receive samples from newborns umbilical cord tissue and blood and isolate the Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) from these tissues in our FDA registered and inspected, cGTP (Current Good Tissue Practice), laboratory in South Florida. Every sample must pass stringent sterility and contamination protocols to ensure the child’s cells are accessible in the future.
How Does VitalCells Solve for the Limitations Mentioned in the NYT Article:
Usability: VitalCells does not release cells for transplant (donor) treatments. These cells are for the baby’s own use and can be used in conjunction with their medical practitioner.
Limited Number of Cells: VitalCells culture expands these autologous cells upon retrieval and refund the clients if we cannot get at least 10 million mesenchymal stem cells to start (5x-10x) more live cells natively available in the cord blood/tissue samples. They can potentially generate billions of live cells throughout the child’s life.
Financial Commitment: At VitalCells every sample must pass stringent sterility and contamination protocols to ensure the child’s cells are usable in the future. If clients’ samples are contaminated there is a full refund.
Limiting reasons for release of child’s cells: At VitalCells the cells belong to the clients and are being used in conjunction with their medical practitioner through the practice of medicine. These autologous cells are not drugs and thus are not approved by the FDA.
Dr. Sabrina Solt quoted above also states, “VitalCells corrects for cord blood limitations by not only guaranteeing live cell count, but by ensuring cells are available for use at any point in time with a simple request. No hoops to jump through, no guessing what is actually in the sample, just integrity and quality. There is no other bank I’d trust with my child’s cells. I’m only mad they weren’t available for my first two!!”
VitalCells is transforming this industry, shifting the landscape to stem cell banking by providing parents and their children with tangible LIVE cells to be utilized for regenerative medicine and available throughout their life. Expecting families should be well-informed about the capabilities and limitations of the stem cell bank they choose. At VitalCells, they prioritize transparency, quality, and accessibility to ensure your child’s stem cells are viable and ready for use when needed.
Please visit Learn – Vitalcells to learn more and have someone reach out to answer your questions.