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General > Public Donations Vs Private Collection
November 30, 2009

Why participate?

Private: Privately banking your newborn's stem cells guarantees that those cells will be available for your child in the event of potentially life threatening diseases.  Collection of your baby's cord blood for their own use is referred to as autologous collection and the cells are, of course, a perfect match for your child. The chance that your child's cord blood will be successfully stored is over 95%.

Public: Public donations of stem cells are used for people needing a suitable stem cell match. This is referred to as allogeneic collection for general public usage, specifically for the treatment of bone marrow diseases such as leukaemia. Only a small proportion of samples donated to public banks will ultimately be stored.

What is the benefit of using my child's stem cells?

Private: The collected and stored stem cells are a 100% tissue match to the child it was collected from. Consequently, there are NO complications due to Graft Vs Host disease (GVHD). This also means that these cells may be used in clinical applications without the problems of mismatch.

Public: Chronic GVHD affects more than 55% of matched unrelated donor transplant recipients and about 80% of mismatched recipients. GVHD increases therapy failure and can be life threatening.