For a few hundred dollars, a private company provides each mother with a special kit that allows blood to be collected from the umbilical cord of the child. A few tens of dollars more a month and the blood is saved for future medical use by the family. The company, "Kryo-Cell", promises that thanks to the stem cells in which the umbilical cord blood will cure a wide variety of diseases. Mo
Tamara Traubman
Your banker in the delivery room
Illustration: Gila Kaplan
In the ads in newspapers and leaflets distributed in stores for maternity clothes, she offers
A new Israeli company for parents who are before giving birth to lend a hand to life
- for life" for their baby who is about to be born, and keep it in a special bank for him
Blood from the umbilical cord. Banks like these have started to emerge in recent years
Following studies published in prestigious medical journals such as
","Journal of Medicine New England who found that in some cases
It is possible to use the stem cells extracted from umbilical cord blood as an alternative source of donations
of bone marrow. Bone marrow transplants are done as part of cancer treatment,
Blood diseases and diseases of the immune system.
The field of cord blood transplants is still in its infancy, the medical experience in it
Not much, and experts say that in most cases they will still prefer a transplant
Bone marrow from an adult. However, with the expected development of techniques
Transplantation in the coming years, the umbilical cord blood may be used in a wide variety of treatments
more of diseases.
The first banks established were public. The first bank in Israel
Founded eight years ago by hematologist Prof. Arnon Nagler, together with
Tissue freezing technician Simcha Samuel and gynecologist Dr. Uriel Elhalal
and others, at the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital, Jerusalem. Two years ago he founded
Nagler, today the director of the department for bone marrow transplants at Sheba Hospital in Tel
Hashomer, another public bank in Sheba. in both public banks
The Israelis, as in other public banks in the world, blood units are deposited
Donated umbilical cords are given births and are available to the general public in Israel
and abroad.
However, in January of this year, a new player entered the arena: a cord blood bank
Private. spoken
In an Israeli company called "Cryo-Cell", which is a franchisee of the company Cryo-Cell
International based in Florida, USA. For a first payment of 549
dollar,
And another 75 dollars every year, the company promises to take care of collecting blood from a terrorist
navel of
the birth, to store it in the bank and keep it for the donor's family. The company works
In collaboration
Informal operation with hospitals in Israel such as Ichilov. The parents buy
From the company
a kit for collecting umbilical cord blood; At the end of the birth, the medical team collects the blood
terrorist
The birth's navel and a courier company flies him to a bank located in Brussels,
Belgium.
The blood deposited in the bank is the property of the donor's family and other patients are not
can
make use of it.
until the age of
12 Hadassah Hospital also wants to start generating profits from the matter.
According to Rafi
Hofstein, CEO of "Hadisit", the commercial arm of Hadassah, is currently under investigation
possibility
Establish a project that will combine public and private cord blood banking. in part
The public
Umbilical cord blood portions will be deposited to be used by the general public, and in the private part
Portions will be saved
For the use of the donor's family only, for a fee. Hofstein says that if
will come true
The project, "Within three years, revenues of the order of 15 should be expected
one million
dollar".
However, many doctors in the health system disapprove of the private bank of
cryocell
The bank was established without receiving the approval of the Ministry of Health, as according to the procedures
NO
He is committed to it. In several European countries, including the Netherlands and Italy,
There are regulations
which limit or prohibit the establishment of private banks in their field. According to Nagler, only
In years
Recently, franchisees of companies began to operate in Europe in this field
Americanism
Like a cryocell. These days the Israeli Ministry of Health is also formulating procedures
to activate
The banks, and these are expected to be published soon. According to the draft version of
the procedures,
Banks must "receive approval from the Helsinki Committee and the Ministry of Health".
However
Technically, the Cryocell blood units are not kept in Israel at all. in terms of
The law,
Says Nir Kahan, CEO of Cryocell Israel, we are not subordinate to the ministry
the health
According to him, the bank is under the supervision of the "Laboratory Accreditation Authority" in Belgium.
In the company's newsletters, the worried parents-to-be are informed: "The proposed decision
on a spoon
The scales can save your child's life in the future", the guaranteed rescue
"per
But according to Prof. Reuven Or, director of the cord blood bank of
Hadassah,
The amount of stem cells in umbilical cord blood is relatively small, and therefore its use
appropriate
For patients whose weight does not exceed 30 kilograms, that is, approximately up to age -
12 away
Very much from "all of life", and especially very far from the age he usually is
They appear
diseases. However, says Or, in many laboratories around the world researchers are trying
find
Ways to multiply and increase the number of stem cells from umbilical cord blood, thus
to match as well
for transplantation in adult patients. He and other experts believe that in
few years
The method to increase the number of stem cells will be found.
There is no justification for a private bank
In its publication, Cryocell lists many diseases, which it claims to treat
through transplantation
Umbilical cord blood has been "proven to be effective". Indeed, regarding some of the diseases - like
Leukemia
Acute myeloid and acute lymphatic leukemia - evidence has already accumulated
persuasive
As for the effectiveness of the treatment; But the company makes similar promises regarding
for diseases
Others for which the evidence regarding the effectiveness of the treatment is still few, such as
The disease
The autoimmune osteoporosis and lupus (lupus in Hebrew).
Cryo-cell also explains to parents in its advertising that "the choice to collect, preserve
and to lodge
These cells (stem cells) will guarantee your child and maybe even someone in your family a match
Cells
Immediate genetic and life-saving in case of need", since the genetic load is in the blood
Too bad
The umbilical cord is the same as the newborn's, so there is no problem with the existing fit
in transplants
normality However, according to Prof. Nagler, there is still no proof of the priority of
transplantation
Such a blood of your own. In some diseases, experts say, even
A transplant is better
from a suitable foreign donor.
Several bone marrow transplant experts, including Prof. Pablo Rubinstein, the director
Today you
The public cord blood bank in New York, claim that the private banks
trying
Instill fear in people so that they spend their money on a service that is unlikely
forever
They won't have to. Furthermore, says Prof. Or, private banking may
Prevent
Donations to the public banks.
According to Prof. Nagler, a public cord blood bank has significant advantages:
Contrast
For bone marrow repositories, where only the information about the characteristics is stored
The genetics of
The transplant, in the umbilical cord blood bank, the cells themselves are stored. "Theoretically,
I can
to perform the transplant a week after I requested the transplant," he says. The wait
to transplant
From bone marrow reserves of adults may take 2 to 6 months. Additionally,
לפני
Bone marrow transplantation The patient must be given treatment that partially suppresses the bone marrow
The original
his. "With a bone marrow transplant (from an adult donor) I start giving the treatment
and turns the
The patient depends on the treatment that will come," explains Prof. Nagler. "But with transplants
terrorist blood
The umbilical cord, because the implant is held available in a liquid nitrogen tank, I can
ask for it,
Make sure it is safe and of good quality, and only then start the treatment
in a patient
I mean I don't have to start putting the patient at risk before I have the implant
by hand".
Another significant advantage of umbilical cord blood transplants concerns related complications
To the system
the vaccine; Diseases such as graft-versus-host disease, in which the graft attacks the transplanted,
incidence
Much less in umbilical cord blood transplants, because the immune system is less
developed.
Cord blood banks, say Prof. Nagler and other transplant experts, have
justification all
It is also public. The chance that a person will need to use cord blood, which has been stored
for him
in a private, very small bank; Prof. Or estimates the chance at 1 in 200
Thousand.
"When it comes to a private person, most likely the portion will sit in the bank for life
And he is
He will never have to use it. But in a public bank, which serves Clal
the population,
The use of these dishes is much greater," says Nagler. So far they have been done
In the world
About 3,000 umbilical cord blood transplants stored in public banks, to credit
The banks
The private ones registered less than ten transplants.
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