A Tory MP is leading a Parliamentary debate promoting the collection of umbilical cord blood and is asking the Government to respond to a recommendation for an advisory committee to formulate a cord blood bank policy in the United Kingdom.
David Burrowes, 40, Conservative MP for Enfield Southgate and Parliamentary Chairman of the Conservative Christian Fellowship, challenged a widespread view of the majority of parents in Britain that the umbilical cord, once clamped, is simply a waste product. He is also supported by a number of professionals from the charitable, private and public sectors.
‘What inspires me to keep flying the flag for umbilical cord blood is meeting those children who are alive because of cord blood. This is a subject that can be literally a matter of life and death,’ Mr Burrowes told the House of Commons.
‘Patients in the UK requiring a bone marrow donor currently have a one in four chance of survival. Only 50 per cent of those looking for a donor will find one, and of those only 50 per cent will survive. For those who find a bone marrow donor, many get their donor too late in their disease for the treatment to achieve success and that contributes to the 50 per cent failure rate. Greater provision of cord blood could help those patients to get treatment faster and improve their chances of survival.
‘For those who currently have no bone marrow donor, a larger provision of cord blood would give many of them a potentially life-saving option,’ he added.
(Click here to read the debate)
Gillian Merron, Government Minister at the Department of Health, responded saying that she shares Mr Burrowes’ passion about and interest in the subject.
‘New approaches to stem cell transplantation hold out fresh hope for patients with leukaemia and other blood disorders and, of course, cord blood is becoming an increasingly important source of stem cells, particularly for those with rare tissue types not served by the bone marrow register,’ Gillian Merron said.
‘Our knowledge of the potential of cord blood is growing year on year as a result of the Government’s investment in research and our commitment to supporting those who seek to find new answers for those who seek transplants and, because of this, the use of cord blood is increasing in terms of numbers and is broadening in scope,’ she added.
Umbilical cord blood is blood that remains in the placenta and in the attached umbilical cord after childbirth. Cord blood is obtained from the umbilical cord at the time of childbirth, after the cord has been detached from the newborn. It is suggested that cord blood should be collected because it contains stem cells, including hematopoietic cells, which can be used to treat hematopoietic and genetic disorders.
An extensive research suggests that cord blood has the potential to treat many more diseases whilst eliminating the ethical difficulties associated with embryonic stem cells originally derived from human foetuses, which are then destroyed. The treatment and subsequent destruction of embryonic stem cells has become a major ethical issue in the UK and US.
In August 2005, Dr Colin McGukin and Dr Nico Forraz from Kingston University in the UK, working with colleagues at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, have identified cells within human umbilical cord blood that appear to be very similar to embryonic stem cells. Some of these cells expressed the same proteins or markers as embryonic stem cells, and were able to develop into liver cells.
In November 2009, two separate studies have also shown that transplanted umbilical cord blood stem cells transplanted in an animal model had positive therapeutic effects on specific lung and heart disorders of the animal models.