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Umbilical Cord Blood Transplantation

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Contemporary Bone Marrow Transplantation

Part of the book series: Organ and Tissue Transplantation ((OTT))

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Abstract

Cord blood transplantation has provided an alternate stem cell source for many patients without related donors for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Umbilical cord blood, often discarded as a biological waste, is a potential means for cure of not only hematological disorders but also many non-hematological disorders like metabolic diseases, primary immunodeficiencies, and regenerative medicine. Though expanding donor registries for unrelated donors and the rapid adoption of haploidentical transplantation has pushed cord blood transplants to the backseat, newer technologies for expansion and manipulation of cord blood stem cells have renewed interest in this source. This chapter is a review of the evolution and current status of umbilical cord blood transplantation. Aspects covered include biology, indications, conditioning strategies, and complications of cord blood transplantation.

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Acknowledgments

The author wishes to place her sincere thanks to Dr. Jose Easow, Dr. Lakshmanan V, the BMT nursing team and the Infectious Disease team at the Apollo Cancer Institutes, Chennai, without whom the work on cord blood would not have been possible. Dr. Eliane Gluckman and Dr. Vinod Prasad had both been philosopher and guide during the cord program.

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Raj, R. (2021). Umbilical Cord Blood Transplantation. In: Chandy, M., Radhakrishnan, V.S., Sukumaran, R.K. (eds) Contemporary Bone Marrow Transplantation. Organ and Tissue Transplantation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36358-1_17

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