Umbilical Cord Blood for Non-Hematopoietic Clinical Applications in Neonates

Umbilical cord blood (UCB) is increasingly used as alternative to bone marrow or mobilized peripheral blood in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplantation. This led to the establishment of public cord blood banks providing an inventory of approximately 260000 cord blood units. Whereas the storage of autologous cord blood units in private banks is possible, its use is not advised in HSC transplantation settings. However, there are phase I/II clinical trials evaluating autologous UCB in children with traumatic brain injury, acquired hearing loss, neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, and cerebral…