Concepts to facilitate umbilical cord blood transplantation

Abstract

Blood stem cell transplantation aims to regenerate the entire hematopoietic system. Until recently, a significant proportion of patients in need of a hematopoietic cell transplant could not undergo transplantation due to the lack of a suitable matched related or unrelated adult donor. With the advent of umbilical cord blood harvesting and processing technology, the majority of patients can now receive a suitable transplant. This chapter will review current cord blood engineering strategies with a particular focus on novel concepts to facilitate blood stem cell engraftment and hematopoietic reconstitution. Because blood stem cell transplantation serves as the model system for many novel regenerative stem cell therapy strategies, the concepts described are considered to be applicable to nonhematopoietic stem cell therapy as well. Groundbreaking laboratory-based cell processing technologies and strategies to improve engraftment will be discussed.