stem cell storage

[Elizabeth73]

Thinking about doing this - not sure if the £800 cost is worth it ? Anyone done it pro's con's ? Which company did you use ??

Thanks

Elizabeth

That's a tough one. My ob-gyn consultant felt it was perhaps a rip-off--and yet he kept leaflets for the company (I can't remember which) around his office. So even that was a mixed message of sorts.

It's one of those things where if you don't do it you might find it hard to live with yourself if your child does get leukemia or something. But on the other hand, saving the stem cells is unproven to work. It's a moral dilemma, too, because blood cancers don't just affect families who can afford the £800. I'm sure I'm not helping, but I've probably mentioned a few of the pros and cons at least.

My DH is a paed and anti - says the technology is there to collect the stuff but not necessarily to use it should you need to , he recons its a con.

But I suppose the idea is that in 8 or 10 yrs the technology will be there to use it should you need to. Or does your dh think medicine is nowhere near the ability to use such technology, not even in 8 or 10 yrs time, geogteach? I'm not debating, just asking. As I said, my ob reckons it's a con too.

I'm a stem cell scientist and I'm definitely saving cord cells when the time comes!
The technology isn't there for mass scale amplification of cord stem cells by your local bog-standard hospital - it needs to be done by a specialist academic haematology dept. It's really no different to harvesting and amplification of bone marrow stem cells.

If finances are a problem - contact them and offer a portion of the cells for research in return for storage. Since Alderhay, there's a massive shortage of tissue donated for research and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by their willingness to help, if you're helping them!

Hi Highlander any idea what hospitals offer to take samples for research that may help - I'm in Brighton and the local hospital doesn't

I would agree with highlander, it's not really on for standard hospital labs at the moment, but it's not a terribly difficult research protocol. I don't think it's a case of wating 8-10 years, it's just not routine. I can't see how it can be a con really- and as expatkat says you would find it hard to deal with not having done it if the need arose, and you had been able to afford it in the first place (getting my tenses a bit muddled here ). I definitely would have done it had it been on offer when mine were born. There are no guarantees it would work for any given individual, but still.

Elizabeth, I'll leave highlander to answer your question, but I'd bet that there will be several suitable labs in London which would be reasonably handy for you.

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Hi twiglett! I don't know about the logistics of how things are done in clinical labs, but since stem cells are a self-renewing population they could in principle be used for anyone else and still be kept frozen down for the person from whom they were derived. I wouldn't have thought that there would be ethical objections to doing that, the problems usually occur when there is any kind of prenatal testing to ensure that a pregnancy will result in a baby who is a good match. That answers your other question- you wouldn't know without testing whether your new baby's stem cells would be a good enough match for your ds or your dh.

How's she doing by the way?

When my daughter was born, nearly 5 years ago, I had read about donating the cord blood cells. That sounded like a great idea to us, but the hospital didn't do it, which was really disappointing.

Is that something that's offered these days? (Highlander, you probably know.) We didn't feel it necessary to save them for our own private use, especially as there are no medical conditions that run in either family. But we thought the idea of donating them either for research or for someone else that can use them if it's a match, was a great one.