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 First stem cell bank
 India's first cord blood stem-cell bank, LifeCell, will soon be functional at
Keelakotaiyur, in Tamil Nadu. The Asia CRYO-CELL team, in technical collaboration with CRYO-CELL International, Florida, will have its state-of-the-art lab and facility inaugurated by Tamil Nadu Governor S S Barnala in Chennai on March 5.
Asia CRYO-CELL has invested Rs 12 crore in the facility and hopes to break even by the end of 2007. Its CEO, A Abhaya Kumar, says the company hopes to have about 10,000 customers by then.
 Says Dr Saranya Nandakumar, medical director, LifeCell, "In recent years, no single form of therapy has held out the promise of success that stem cell therapy has. It took 16 long years since the first unreported cord blood transplant in New Jersey in 1972, for scientists to realise the potential of this vast resource hitherto untapped in the umbilical cord blood.
Till 1988, this blood was discarded along with the placenta, until researchers in France used this source of stem cells to successfully treat a child with Fanconi's anaemia. Since then there has been no looking back and today, cord blood stem cells have been used to cure a variety of diseases with varying degrees of morbidity and mortality.
 "The illnesses most frequently treated with stem cells in India have been leukaemia, thalassaemia and anaemia. Besides banking and treatment for these illnesses, scientists have also developed means by which to increase the quantity of the stem cell harvest through various techniques. This has ensured that these cells from cord blood need not be limited to use in the
paediatric age group alone.
"The more recent field of regenerative therapy that has captured the imagination of people is where the largest wealth of the stem cells lies. These pluripotent stem cells have the property of plasticity by which they are able to differentiate into other kinds of dedicated stem cell lines. Using the stem cells from an individual to differentiate into a different stem cell type that is subsequently used to treat the same individual thereby minimises the risk of graft-versus-host reaction (GVHR), a problem that has dogged transplant surgeons. This property of regeneration, coupled with therapy, has been used most effectively in the treatment of diabetes and cardiac disease."
 The umbilical cord that forms the lifeline between a mother and her baby is a rich source of stem cells. Stem cells have the potential to help in the cure of more than 45 life-threatening ailments, according to LifeCell. Childbirth is a once in a lifetime opportunity to collect and preserve these stem cells and harness what is otherwise discarded as bio-medical waste.
Umbilical cord stem cell banking is a completely safe 10-minute procedure that involves collection of cord blood from the umbilical cord after it has been clamped and cut (post delivery). The collected sample is then processed and the stem cells are separated and preserved in cryovials at minus 196 degrees centigrade. They are available for use by the donor and immediate family any time in the future, the company adds.
LifeCell empowers expectant parents across India and facilitates the banking of cord blood stem cells. The scope of their services include guiding parents through the entire procedure and storing the stem cells at a state-of-the-art facility at
Keelakotaiyur.
A licence agreement and knowledge-sharing tie-up with CRYO-CELL International (CCI) (www.cryo-cell.com) gives LifeCell the benefit of the CCI's expertise. Pioneers of umbilical cord stem cell banking, CCI is based at Clearwater, Florida, US. They have a track record of 12 years and are America's No 1 cord blood bank, with the largest repository of banked samples.
With the aim of ensuring healthy longevity, LifeCell dedicates a considerable amount of effort to creating an awareness of stem cell banking. The website
www.cryo-cellasia.com is a repository of information on every aspect of umbilical cord stem cell banking. Besides details of LifeCell and the scope of its services, the website contains an exhaustive section on frequently asked questions (FAQs) to answer every query on umbilical cord stem cell banking. Articles on the uses of stem cell and medical breakthroughs in the field of stem cell from across the world also feature on the site.
R Rangaraj
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