COLLECTION OF CORD-BLOOD STEM-CELLS FOR TRANSPLANTATION IN THALASSEMIC PATIENTS

Thalassemia is widely distributed throughout the world and is one of t he major public health problems. The use of bone marrow transplantatio n, the only curative therapy for thalassemia, is limited because less than 30% of the patients have unaffected and HLA-identical siblings as donors. Cord blood stem cells, an alternative source of stem cells fo r transplantation, have been successfully transplanted into patients w ith several diseases after myeloablative therapy. Twenty cord blood sa mples from unaffected neonates whose siblings had severe thalassemia w ere collected, The median volume was 80 ml. The median number of cells and colony forming units-granulocyte-macrophage in cord blood was 9.2 x 10(8) and 3.4 x 10(5), respectively. Four of 20 cord blood samples had HLA-matched to the affected siblings, One patient underwent cord b lood transplantation with success; one patient is waiting for transpla ntation.