A number of celebrities have been seen recently with cord blood collection kits. Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott and Scott Disick and Kourtney Kardashian have both been spotted with the kits. In New Zealand, celebs Adine Wilson and Mandy Barker have chosen to bank with CordBank.

Whilst we can’t give you the celebrity lifestyle, we can give you a $50 Farmers gift card for free! All you need to do is refer a friend or family member who then registers to have their baby’s cord blood collected, and you’ll both receive a $50 Farmers gift card.

 We have received queries from prospective parents all over the world about collecting their new born’s cord blood from an international location and transporting it back to our laboratory in Auckland. Recently we collected the cord blood for baby Olivia from Malaysia. Proud parents Jon & Olivia wrote:

“Dear Kate, Kylie and everyone at CordBank,

We would like to thank you all for all the hard work you did for us organising to have the cord blood of our beautiful daughter, Olivia Maddison, collected from Malaysia.

We greatly appreciate it and loved dealing with such fantastic people.

Thank you, Denise, Jon & Olivia Hautler.”

If you are living abroad and would like to find out more about having the cord blood collected and delivered to New Zealand, email us at info@cordbank.co.nz

The Haiti earthquake was a terrible tragedy that made headlines around the world, but for one New Zealand family, it was a particularly heart wrenching event.

Emily Sanson-Réjouis from Nelson lost her husband Emmanuel and daughters Kofie-Jade and Zenzie in the earthquake. Fortunately daughter Alyahna survived, and Emily and Alyahna have since returned to Nelson to be with family.

This month, Emily set up Foundation Réjouis to realise Emmanuel’s aspiration of providing inspirational educational opportunities for the disadvantaged children of his birth-country Haiti – opportunities beyond traditional learning, such as sports and music education.

Emily and Emmanuel had banked the cord blood for their three girls with CordBank and we will be making a donation to Foundation Réjouis to help this worthy cause. If you would like to make a donation, the details are:

Bank account name: Foundation Rejouis
Bank of New Zealand, Nelson Branch
Account number: 02-0704-0075051-00

For more information on the Haiti Earthquake family.

In February 2010 the Medical College of Georgia (USA) confirmed their principal investigator, James Carroll, MD, Chief of Pediatric Neurology at MCG had received FDA approval to determine whether an infusion of cord blood stem cells can improve the quality of life for children with cerebral palsy.

As at the end 2009, 124 children had received their own cord blood as treatment for Cerebral Palsy – including New Zealander Maia Friedlander whose cord blood had been saved with CordBank NZ.  These initial treatments were performed under a phase I clinical trial – where the goal is see if the treatment holds benefit – without a control group.

Dr Kurtzberg, , MD, Chief of Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplantation at Duke University. who treated all but 10 of those children is also to oversee a randomised trial of 120 children aged 6 months to 6 years.  The trial will last 2 years. Neither of the clinical trials supervised by Carroll or Kurtzberg plan to give nothing to the control patients. Both research groups intend to set up their trials in such a way that the control group gets their own stem cells too, but after a time delay.

Dr Kurtzberg detailed her work on CBS news earlier this week

When Nikki Dines was expecting her first baby, her mum Linda offered to meet the costs of cord blood banking for her newest grandchild. It was an offer Nikki was delighted to accept.

A good friend of Linda’s had recently done the same for her first grandchild and the idea made sense to her.

“So often grandparents buy the cot, or car seat and pram for a new baby – but we wanted to give something that would last a lot longer than that. We felt that paying for cord blood banking was a really meaningful gift – something that would last a lifetime” said Linda.

“We know that the chances of needing your own stem cells in the future are increasing every day so it’s reassuring to us that we’ve been able to help protect our grandchildrens’ health now and in the future.

Cord blood is the blood that remains in a baby’s umbilical cord following birth and after the cord is cut. It’s a valuable source of stem cells, which are a perfect DNA match for that baby. Cord blood stem cells can only be collected right after a baby is born, via a simple and painless procedure.

Three years after that first conversation, Linda and her husband now have 5 grandchildren – and have paid for cord blood banking with CordBank NZ for them all.

“We are so grateful for their generosity” said Nikki and her husband Elliot, now the proud parents of three gorgeous children.

“It’s really comforting to know that our children have their cord blood stored should they need it in the future. And as we have the cord blood stored for all three of our children, they each have access to their own perfectly matched stem cells when they need them.”

Two New Zealand children have already been successfully treated with their own cord blood, and current research shows there’s a 1 in 200 chance that children born today will need a stem cell transplant in their lifetime. Parents banking their baby’s cord blood now can rest easy in the knowledge that they have these cells safely stored.

Chloe Levine was born seemingly perfect — she was the happy and healthy baby her parents had dreamed of.

But by the time she was 9 months old, Chloe was not reaching the milestones her older sister Shayla had met at that age.

Chloe’s right hand was constantly clenched in a tight fist – she couldn’t even hold her bottle. And she wasn’t able to crawl; she would “shuffle” her body across the floor in a seated position, her mother, Jenny, recalls.

Soon after Chloe’s first birthday, the Levines, who live in Denver, learned their daughter had suffered a stroke in utero and had become afflicted with cerebral palsy.

The Levines remembered they had banked stem cells from Chloe’s umbilical cord at her birth, and wondered if they could be used to help treat her.

On May 28, 2008, at the age of 2, Chloe received a 15-minute re-infusion of her stem cells.

Within four days, her parents saw a noticeable difference, although Kurtzberg said most kids show benefits three to nine months later.

The rigidity on Chloe’s right side loosened up and her speech started to improve. She was able to ride her toy tractor, which in the past had been too difficult for her to pedal.

“Her life is completely normal, she doesn’t drag her right foot, she can use her right hand,” Jenny Levine said. “She rides a bike, a scooter…we’re taking her skiing this year. She’s fabulous.”

Dr. Charles Cox, from the University of Texas-Houston Medical School, has been studying cord blood cells for the past 2 1/2 years.

“Umbilical cord blood cell therapy for traumatic brain injury has a lot of pre-clinical work that has been done, suggesting that it’s beneficial,” Cox said. “I believe that cord blood is equivalent or better than bone marrow-derived cells.”

Cox said if the parents do not choose to save the cord blood, it is considered medical waste and thrown away.

“Really, the issue of cord blood banking today comes down to trying to understand what the future holds in terms of regenerative medicine as a field,” Cox said. “So, the long-term look is, and even the intermediate-term look is that it’s not science-fiction. I see it expanding and accelerating over the next two to five years.” http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,573265,00.html

We’re delighted to be partnering with EGG - the stylish maternity clothing brand - to give CordBank customers-to-be an exclusive offer. From 10th December 2009 until 31 March 2010, enter EGG as your code when you register online with CordBank and you’ll receive a $100.00 EGG gift voucher to use at any one of their three Auckland stores (Albany, Newmarket & Botany).

Terms & Conditions:

• To be eligible to receive a $100 EGG voucher, the customer must firstly register with CordBank and enter the word ‘egg’ in the ‘promotional code’ field.
• Only one $100 EGG voucher will be issued per child registered.
• The voucher can only be redeemed at the three Auckland EGG stores (Albany, Newmarket & Botany) and cannot be used towards online purchases.
• The voucher cannot be exchanged for cash and EGG will not be liable for any vouchers lost or stolen.
• The voucher cannot be used in conjunction with any other EGG gift voucher, offer or discount.
• The voucher is valid for 6 months from date of issue.
• The promotion runs from 10 December 2009 until midnight on 31 March 2010.

Oxygen deprived newborns are the focus of a new study underway at Duke University in North Carolina. The pilot programme is being led by Dr Joanne Kurtzberg, who succesfully reinfused New Zealander Maia Friedlander with her own cord blood last year. The purpose of the pilot study is to evaluate the safety and feasibility of infusions of autologous (the patient’s own) umbilical cord blood stem cells in term gestation newborn infants with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. For full details of the study – http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00593242?term=cord+blood&rank=11

L-R Adine, Harper and Jeff Wilson

Proud parents of one year old Harper, Adine and Jeff Wilson, will become a family of four this January when their new baby arrives. Just as they did for Harper, the family has enrolled with CordBank to have their newborn’s cord blood collected and stored for future use.

Cord blood is the blood that remains in your baby’s umbilical cord following birth and after the cord is cut. It’s a valuable source of stem cells, which are a perfect DNA match for your baby.

“By saving your baby’s cord blood you give them the chance to survive some of the most deadly diseases and illnesses – now and into adulthood.“

“I first found out about it through a lady at work, but I know friends who have missed out because they just didn’t know that the service was available. So I tell everyone I can about it. We see cord blood banking as an insurance that you hope you never need to use,” says Adine.

Cord blood stem cells can only be collected right after your baby is born, via a simple and painless procedure.

They are the building blocks of organs, tissues, blood and the immune system. They can also turn into other types of cells including heart, muscle and nerve cells.

We want our children to be able to benefit from the progress being made in the world of medicine – which is increasingly using cord blood stem cells to treat degenerative illnesses and conditions,” Adine adds.

To date, two New Zealand children have been successfully treated with their own cord blood, and current research shows there’s a 1 in 200 chance that children born today will need a stem cell transplant in their lifetime. Parents banking their baby’s cord blood now can rest easy in the knowledge that they have these cells safely stored.

“By having the stem cells stored for both of our children they will each have access to what is effectively a perfect match for each of them, rather than waiting in hope for a suitable donor if they need a transplant.”

“As a parent you want to cover all the bases so banking the cord blood for both of our children will give us the peace of mind that we have given them the best start in life.”

The scientific journal Cell Transplantation has 2 studies that have explored umbilical cord blood stem cells for lung and heart disorders.  Both studies were conducted using animals so they are very preliminary, but they offer great potential for future treatments.

In one study, researchers investigated the therapeutic benefits of transplanting human umbilical cord blood (UCB) mensenchymal stem cells (MSC) into newborn laboratory rats with oxygen-deprived lung injury.  They found that the cells have a protective effect against hyperoxia-induced lung injury, likely due to anti-inflammatory effects.  These results might eventually lead to the discovery of treatments for hypertoxic neonatal lung disease, or bronchopulmonary dysplasia in premature human infants.

Another research team examined the potential therapeutic role of umbilical cord mononuclear cells (UCMNC) for the treatment of congenital heart defects. They found that the transplants enhanced diastolic properties, most likely through blood vessel growth.  The study found that UCMNC transplants are “feasible and safe” and seem to “positively influence the diastolic properties of the RV under chronic volume overload.” http://www.physorg.com/wire-news/20441350/umbilical-cord-blood-stem-cell-transplant-may-help-lung-heart-di.html