This is a question we get asked often and it is a great question! If a pregnant parent plans to bank cord blood of their child, they should feel confident that if and when they need to use the cord blood, it will be a healthy and useful sample.
Theoretically, cryogenic scientists estimated that living cells stored in liquid nitrogen could survive for centuries. Obviously, however, this has not been tested with actual cells!
In terms of real data showing the stability cryopreserved cord blood, cord blood banks have relied on studies by Hal E. Broxmeyer, distinguished professor and Mary Margaret Walther Professor of Microbiology and immunology at Indiana University, Indianapolis, Indiana.
Hal is internationally recognized as one of the founders of umbilical cord blood stem cell transplantation field. His laboratory has made the first studies that suggested the possibility of using cord blood as a source of stem cells and hematopoietic progenitor transplantable and played a central role in planning and coordinating the first successful transplantation of blood cord made in 1988. as such, Hal laboratory has the most experience with the long-term storage of cord blood. In 2003, his lab published data demonstrating the efficient recovery of stem cells from cord blood hematopoietic progenitor and after 15 years of storage. More recently, he made reference work demonstrating the efficient recovery of these cord blood cells after 24 years of storage (see www.stembook.org) .At Insception Lifebank, we have demonstrated the efficient cellular recoveries from samples of cord blood has been set aside in 1998. Indeed, 2 samples banked in 1998 were used in a clinical trial on diabetes in 2009, demonstrating these samples remained strong after 11 years of storage.
as part of our quality program, we continue to monitor the cell recoveries from samples that have been stored for the long term, to provide confidence to our customers that the blood unit cord their child is safe with us!