NIH Sickle Cell Cord Blood Research Program

How cord blood may be helpful?

Some years ago scientists learned that cord blood contains blood-making cells just like bone marrow, and that these cells can be used for transplantation. They also developed ways to process cord blood, freeze it, store it for a period of time, thaw it, and then use the cells to transplant a patient. With this information doctors have successfully used cord blood to transplant sickle cell patients.