Radiohead succeeds the union of the oppositesThis time the proportion is mounted to 8311 million of which 45 were medium dependentThe Spain went to the same effect but more recentlyIt will be very hard says a top of the listVery bad omen for a few weeks of midterm legislative elections50 at the meeting of June 2010 rose above 50But when they will address the Outlook for 2011 iThe first two parameters are less useful in this wayIn l ' Oréal awareness is even more recentFive professional players of the football championship of England have frozen the company CryoGenesis in Liverpool of stem cells from the umbilical cord of their babies, to use them to address any problems of cartilage or ligaments. This initiative has rekindled debate after the freezing of the umbilical cord of the baby of the Spain infante on the emergence of a private sector in this area.
Indeed, in umbilical cord blood is rich in blood stem cells. Term, subject to successfully lead their differentiation could be derive from different types of cells (including muscle, ligament, or bone) for the purposes of regenerative medicine.
Currently, blood stem cells are used to treat patients with leukemia, constituting an alternative to bone marrow transplantation. This treatment has been tested successfully for the first time in 1988 by the team of Professor Eliane Glückman, Chief, hematology and bone marrow transplant at the hospital Saint Louis, on a seven year old child suffering from a fatal hematologic disease. It could be saved with stem cells from umbilical cord from the birth of his little sister. The medical issue is important, as long term short. Where the idea of systematizing, in public hospitals, with the agreement of the parents, collecting umbilical cords, which are otherwise regarded as hospital waste. Stem cells are extracted are then frozen for banks in which can draw for therapeutic purposes.
Also 54 public banks related to the global level by the NetCord network, some sixty private banks have emerged, in Asia and the United States but also in some European countries, such as the Germany, with for example the Bank Vita 34. "But they are a competition, or at least discomfort to public banks, explains Eliane Glückman, while the relevance of their approach is not proven medically."
Distribution or capitalisation
Indeed, public banks collect the cords on the basis of the free and the anonymity of the gift, so that they can be used for any patient (heterologous graft). Private banks, on the contrary, offer to parents, for finance, freeze and store baby cord blood so that it can serve to him (autologous transplant) or his family, if they suffer a disease at a later date may be cured by this bias. By analogy with the pension systems, can be said that public banks operate on a mode of distribution, while private banks operate on capitalization. However, "aspects of solidarity are absent from private banks, they compete with public banks for the collection of the resource, continues Eliane Glückman.". "But it is important that public banks have the largest possible number of samples, because this increases the chance for a lambda patient find an immunologically compatible sample".
In addition, currently, the medical interest of autologous blood stem cell transplantation is very low. Indeed, if the patient is suffering from a hereditary blood disease, it is very likely that cells extracted from the umbilical cord is also infected with the disease. "The main argument of the private banks is thus holding out the prospects for regenerative medicine", explains Eric Halioua, consultant with Arthur d. Little. But even if this perspective exists, maturity is unknown and it is not even certain that the babies of today can benefit from once adults. While current patients could sometimes be saved by accessing cells stored in private banks.
"Where the application managers of State-owned banks that are imposed on private banks the duty to tell their customers that the probability of use is very low and to confirm, every two or three years, their willingness to pursue the storage", explains Eric Halioua. In addition, it would require private banks to be put at the level of quality public banks so that cells whose parents renounce financing the storage can be recovered without risk, by public banks. The use of a single, indisputable certification body is therefore used to ensure transparency and quality.
