Cord blood
Cord blood Jump to navigation Jump to search Cord blood ( umbilical cord blood ) is blood that remains in the placenta and in the attached umbilical cord after childbirth . Cord blood is collected because it contains stem cells , which can be used to treat hematopoietic and genetic disorders . Constituents Cord blood is composed of all the elements found in whole blood - red blood cells , white blood cells , plasma , platelets . [1] Compared to whole blood some differences in the blood composition exist, for example, cord blood contains higher numbers of natural killer cells , lower absolute number of T-cells and a higher proportion of immature T-cells. [2] However, the interest in cord blood is mostly driven by the observation that cord blood also contains various types of stem and progenitor cells , mostly...