1. What happens if I return to my home country?
The sample will remain at BioVault. It will be shipped anywhere in the world if needed, at -160 C , using medical courier services , full sample tracking and computer controlled sample retrieval.

2. Why is this a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity?
The cord blood is taken from the placenta immediately after the birth. The procedure is quick and painless and poses no risk to mother or baby.

3. How are the stem cells collected?
Immediately after the baby is born the umbilical cord is clamped and severed. The doctor or midwife will then insert the needle attached to the collection kit into the umbilical cord that is connected to the placenta. The placental blood will flow  into the collection pouch. This will not cause any discomfort to the mother . The cord blood is then packed in thermally isolating packaging material and picked up at the hospital and shipped to BioVault.

4. Are there any ethical implications in cord blood storage?
No. Cord blood stem cells should not be confused with embryonic stem cells. Cord blood is normally discarded at birth and the collection of it poses no moral or ethical dilemma.

5.Who performs the collection?
Usually the collection is done by the obstetrician, but it can also be done by a midwife and in some hospitals this is standard procedure.

6. What  happens if I have a Caesarean section?
Normally the procedure is carried out while the placenta is still in the womb. In the case of a Caesarean the doctor will take the collection after the placenta has been removed. This will not affect the quality or the quantity of the sample and is not a reason not to store.

7. Are there any risks involved?
No. Collection of the cord blood does not pose any risk to mother or baby.
However , the doctor’s first priority will always be the safety of mother and child. In some cases , such as a medical emergency, the doctor will be unable to take the cord blood. This is at the discretion of the doctor and his/her decision will never be questioned.

8. Can drugs taken during labour affect the sample?
No. Drugs most commonly administered during labour such as Syntocinon, will not affect the viability of the stem cells.

9. What tests are performed on the mother’s blood and why?
We do a single PCR testing at the time of the delivery for HIV, Syphilis,
Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and HTLV. This is to avoid inadvertently infecting the recipient of the sample.

10. What is HLA testing?
HLA testing, or Human Leukocyte Antigen testing is commonly referred to as ‘tissue typing’. Your baby’s cord blood is a perfect match for your baby , but is also possibly a perfect or very good match for a sibling or other relative. To be sure , we can perform HLA typing of the sample at an additional cost.

11. If I banked cord blood from one child, should I bank the next?
Yes. As mentioned, until tested we will not know whether two siblings are compatible donors. Also some illnesses require autologous transplants (e.g. Cerebral Palsy, where the child uses his own stem cells), and some illnesses require allogeneic  transplants, i.e. sibling-to-sibling, such as Thalassemia.

12. Why is the sample only stored for 25 years?
After 25 years you will have the option to keep storing , at reasonable rates, donate or discard your sample.

13. Can my baby’s stem cells be used for another family member?
This will depend on the results of the HLA testing. Genetically siblings have the best chance of being a match. Fortunately with cord blood , as opposed to bone marrow, we do not have to have a perfect match. A 4/6 correlation will suffice. Studies have shown that children who receive a cord blood transplant from a relative, even if mis-matched often fare better than children who receive a perfectly matched bone marrow transplant from a stranger.

14. Do you store whole blood?

No, we do not store whole blood.

“The majority of banks remove red blood cells prior to freezing, primarily because these cells often burst during freezing and release iron from hemoglobin that can be toxic.  The alternate to removing the red cells before freezing is to wash any broken cells out of the collection upon thaw.  Removing the red cells also removes the donor's blood type (the ABO and Rh types).  When cord blood goes from a donor to a patient for a transplant, the donor and patient can be compatible on all the HLA types used for transplant matching and still have incompatible red blood types.”

(excerpt from Parents Guide to Cord Blood)

15. Should I store the umbilical cord tissue as well as the cord blood?

BioVault has the entire infrastructure in place to store any type of human tissue including the umbilical cord tissue. Nevertheless we feel it is our duty to bring the following to the attention of our clients; The Wharton’s jelly that surrounds the blood vessels in the umbilical cord is a rich source of Mesenchymal stem cells. Mesenchymal stem cells are already being used in regenerative medicine and no one disputes their potential. However, cryogenics only works well at a cellular level.

In order to be able to preserve the mesenchymal stem cells, they would have to first be extracted and then frozen. This is a very costly and time consuming procedure and with the current technology not routinely possible. Freezing entire portions of umbilical cord without first extracting the mesenchymal stem cells, as is the current procedure among cord blood storage companies, causes them to die. The DMSO, the chemical used to prevent crystal formation inside the cell, cannot reach the individual cells and thus cannot prevent the crystal formation. These cells will in all probability rupture and die and be useless for future therapeutic use.

16. What is the recovery rate for BioVault’s method?
In fact BioVault's stem cell recovery rates are the highest published rates in the industry.

In spite of the much higher cost associated with manual processing, BioVault uses their proprietary manual volume reduction method which is a positive variation on the world renowned stem cell scientist Dr. Rubenstein’s description of it.  Our methods are currently quoted as achieving a stem cell recovery rate of more than 95%.  This is in comparison to automated systems; published studies by a leading provider of automated systems show mean MNC cell recovery rates ranging from 77.4% to 87.7% with a variability ranging from +/- 9.72% to +/- 27.8%.

Of course we are constantly monitoring the recovery rates of automated systems and will consider their use when their recovery rates exceed our current 95%.

17. What’s on the certificate?
Apart from your unique ID number, your baby’s name and date of birth, the CD34+ and TNC (total nucleated cell count, i.e. leukocytes)

18. Vials or bags?
Bags. This is a mandatory requirement in the UK.