Can placental blood be stored?

Many expectant parents are investigating their options for the cord blood of their child -whether to donate it, bank it privately, or discard it as medical waste -but what about the placenta? Can it also be a valuable source of cells to be saved? Let's discuss the placenta itself first before we address that question.

The placenta is a maternal-fetal organ that develops during pregnancy in the uterus and is responsible, among other things, for supplying oxygen and nutrients to the growing fetus while also removing toxins. The placenta's maternal side fills with uterine blood. The placenta's fetal side receives the blood of the baby from the umbilical cord. The fetal and maternal blood vessels within the placenta are close enough to allow the transfer of nutrients, oxygen, and waste products; however, there is no mix between the two circulations. The placenta separates from the uterine wall once the baby is born and is expelled from the body.

Placental blood is the blood that remains in the placenta's blood vessels after birth. It is collected following the completion of cord blood collection. Placental blood contains cells similar to those found in cord blood, including hematopoietic stem cells. What makes placental blood unique is that it contains a higher concentration of certain stem cells and, when compared to cord blood, in more immature stages of development. This is valuable only because the total number of stem cells being used in medical treatment has been related to transplantation.

Placental tissue banking gives you the opportunity to store cells that are quite different from those for cord or placental blood that may have unique applications. Cord and placental blood are mainly used for transplants that require hematopoietic reconstitution (blood cell regeneration).

The placenta is the nine-month system of life support for your child. After the birth of your child, stem cell-rich placental blood may be collected for a variety of hematologic (blood-related), immunological, and metabolic conditions, in addition to cord blood, and MSC-rich placental tissue may be saved for future use in regenerative medicine applications. So freezing of placenta for stem cells might become an amazing process of both research and treatment.