Organization of an umbilical cord blood transplant program.

The development of the human umbilical cord blood transplants with hematopoietic repopulating cells has enabled some problems associated with bone marrow transplants to be solved. Frozen umbilical cord blood banks should facilitate the finding of suitable stem cell donors. However, further experience is necessary to develop the optimal method for collection, separation, storage and cryopreservation of umbilical cord blood. We report our experience in the organization of a Cord Blood Bank.