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Banking Adult Stem Cells
1. Why should I store my peripheral blood if I am not sick?
First and foremost, pre-disease blood collection and cryopreservation from healthy donors is the way of the future in the medical field. Preserving your blood before it becomes “sick” or infected in which it can no longer be of use to you for your medical advantage, puts you into a new generation of people who will be able to potentially benefit from the potential of stem cell technology in the future. By doing this, you are giving yourself the opportunity to benefit medically from many of the already proven life saving procedures. Storing stem cells is like taking out an insurance policy to try to insure the health of yourself and your family in the years to come. Hopefully, you will never need to use your stem cells, but if the need arises, you can rest assured that they are readily available for expansion and transplant.
2. Isn’t storing your adult stem cells only for people with a history of family diseases?
No. This is no longer the case. It is true that for the past forty years bone marrow stem cell transplants have traditionally been employed for very sick patients who were most often terminal with cancer or an immune system deficiency. Beginning with the first successful umbilical cord blood stem cell transplant in 1988, a new vista in stem cell disease treatment became evident. Cord blood stem cell banking surfaced and came of age. However, even in the early days of cord blood banking, the majority of families that chose to bank were families that were genetically pre-disposed to childhood diseases such as leukemia, etc. Since then, stem cell science and technology has made multifold advances, where today, there are thousands of families around the globe that have decided to collect and store their babies’ umbilical cord blood for many reasons that go well beyond treatment of the terminally ill. Recent advances have been so extraordinary that it has become apparent that stem cell preservation need not be and should not be limited to meeting the needs of diseased patients only, but rather stem cell banking with healthy individuals as a potential stem cell treatment protection for the future is prudent. These scientific advances have confirmed the advantage of collecting and preserving the stem cells of healthy adults who have lost out on their once in a lifetime opportunity to preserve their umbilical cord and placenta blood derived stem cells. Adult peripheral blood stem cell collection has come to be recognized as the most convenient, readily accessible and lowest cost source of stem cell harvesting and preservation for adults. With the unique technology provided by AdultCells, LLC and the advancements in therapeutic applications of stem cells, you can greatly increase your chances of recovery should illness arise for which your adult peripheral blood stem cells may provide alleviation or cure. AdultCells’ pre-disease blood banking technology allows families who missed the window of opportunity to bank their children’s umbilical cord blood to benefit from the same types of potential life extending and life saving medical procedures as has proved to be previously possible with only umbilical cord and bone marrow derived stem cells.
3. Do we need to collect and store blood samples for everyone in the family?
Because of HLA matching issues, it is recommended that each individual family member collect and store their own blood samples. This will eliminate the worry of GVHD and HLA blood matching problems should a stem cell transplant become necessary. Adult Cells makes it easy and affordable to preserve all of your family members’ stem cells.
4. Who should consider becoming an AdultCells client?
- People Who Believe in the Potential Future Benefits of Stem Cells
Use of stem cells in transplants began decades ago with the discovery that certain diseases could be successfully treated with bone marrow stem cells. This finding was followed by recognition of the transplant value of umbilical cord blood stem cells. We are now just entering the transplant investigation era with adult peripheral blood stem cells. Persons who regard these adult stem cells as having precious future potential medical treatment value should consider preserving their stem cells for the benefit they may offer in a time of future treatment need as medical advances progress.
- Health Conscience, Disease Free Individuals
Our AdultCells stem cell preservation service should be considered by disease free, healthy individuals. People who are aware of the benefits of good health and lifestyle will want to take advantage of preserving their viable, youthful adult stem cells at their earliest stage possible. Persons with a pre-existing disease or disorder who are hopeful of harvesting their stem cells for use as an immediate cure should know that current stem cell technology is limited and may preclude use for the treatment of pre-existing conditions.
- People Exposed to High Levels of Toxicity
People who work as first responders such as EMTs, police, fire people, or persons who work in chemical and nuclear plants, the military and other high health risk employment settings are constantly exposed to toxins and should consider collecting and banking their healthy stem cells before incurring undesirable levels of exposure in their lifetime.
5. When should you preserve your adult stem cells?
Though age alone is not a barrier to viable stem cell preservation, research has shown that the stem cells of younger, healthier individuals tend to engraft better in transplants than cells harvested from less healthy individuals. As such, it is important to collect adult peripheral blood stem cells, whether from a child, adolescent or adult before the possible onset of disease, or any other factor which might prevent their use in time of medical need.
6. What is the Purpose of Preserving Adult Stem Cells?
The purpose for harvesting adult peripheral blood micro specimens at the earliest disease free, healthy stage is to preserve the stem cells, not for immediate use, but for potential future use as science and technology advance to a point allowing for stored specimens to be sufficiently expanded and/or reprogrammed to permit their potential clinical application in time of need.
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