In everyone's blood there are mature white and red blood cells. However cord blood also contains stem cells, which don't occur on blood after childbirth. The most important type is hematopoietic stem cells, which are able to differentiate into white and red blood cells or platelets. Cord blood also contains other stem cells able to differentiate into muscle and bone cells, insulin producing cells, cardiac muscle cells etc.

After birth, hematopoietic stem cells are only found in bone marrow. However these cells could be influenced by factors such as environment, aging and lifestyle. The ability to reproduce itself is decreasing. Cells from cord blood are young, collected at age zero and have the highest ability to reproduce. Also cells from bone marrow are usually extracted from the already ill patient and so there is a risk they will be contaminated by cancerous cells or affected by a previous treatment.

Cord blood donated by mothers to public bank is used to treat diseases where the transplantation of hematopoietic cells from a donor is needed (allogenic). In Japan and the USA cord blood is the most common source of hematopoietic cells for allogenic transplantations for children.

Child’s own cord blood could be use for autologous transplantation, for any diseases where autologous bone marrow is used. Those are especially some childhood cancers (neuroblastoma, medulloblastoma), lymphomas, acquired disorders of hematopoiesis, autoimmune diseases etc. 

The use of autologous cord blood is possible for adults too. In fact the number of disease treatable by autologous cord blood increases with age. New possibilities for its use arise in the field of regenerative medicine. Experimental studies observing cord blood use in treatment of diabetes type 1 or neurological defects are being conducted in Germany and the USA. 

It is not possible to use autologous cord blood to treat genetic defect or in the case of early onset of leukemia (under 2 years of age). In both these cases it is necessary to find a suitable donor among siblings or in public registries.

Slovakian physicians have good experience with cord blood transplantation and they would welcome opportunity to use it. So far sibling cord blood has been used to treat children suffering from chronic leukemia, Blackfan-Diamond anemia, aplastic anemia and the inherited disorder adrenoleukodystrophy. Autologous cord blood helps in treatment of brain tumor (medulloblastoma).

Cord blood can not only be used for the child it was collected from, but also for their siblings. Treatment of some diseases required hematopoietic cells from another person - a donor. 

For successful stem cells transplantation from a different person, donor must be compatible with the recipient. The HLA antigens (certain tissue characteristics, present on white blood cells) are compared. With siblings there is a 25% chance of absolute compatibility. When searching for a suitable donor in international registers, often no compatible donor can be found amid millions of donors. The use of child's cord blood for other members of the family is improbable.

Cord blood donated to the public registry is intended for allogenic transplantations i.e. for patients who are in need of hematopoietic cells from another person. By means of the international exchange it is at the disposal of patients all around the world. If cord blood is stored for private use it is in the ownership of parents can be claimed at any time. It is intended for autologous transplantation for the child, however in some cases it can also be used for a sibling.

Every collection of cord blood is specific; the amount collected depends on several factors such as the size of the baby, the size of the placenta, the length of the umbilical cord, the amount of leftover blood in the placenta etc. For the actual use of cord blood the volume is not important. What is important is the total amount of nucleated cells, which is detected during processing. The number of cells in each collection determines the maximum weight of the patient for whom it can be used.

Cord blood can be collected during Caesarian section; experiences with such collections are very positive. The health of the mother and child is the main concern however and if there are any complications it is up to the physician to decide whether to go ahead with the collection. 

Based on our current knowledge it is estimated that cord blood can be stored indefinitely, or at least for one human lifetime. Institutions that monitor the storage of biological material (FDA, EMEA) have not published any restrictions on the usable life of stored cord blood.

Research and the usage of frozen live cells (sperm, bone marrow etc) show that cryoconservation in liquid nitrogen keeps the cells viable for several decades. Oldest frozen live cells successfully used in medicine were 50 years old. Because cord blood has only been cryoconserved in the past couple of decades, experimentally