unrelated umbilical cord blood

Unrelated umbilical cord blood refers to hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells collected from the umbilical cord and placenta of a newborn, donated by someone who is not related to the recipient. This product is used as an alternative source of allogeneic stem cells for transplantation, particularly in patients with hematologic malignancies or genetic disorders requiring hematopoietic reconstitution. The main mechanism involves engraftment of donor-derived hematopoietic stem cells, which restore bone marrow function after myeloablation. Unrelated UCB is considered antigenically “naive,” allowing for greater HLA mismatch tolerance and reduced risk of acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) compared to other sources like bone marrow or peripheral blood. However, it carries risks such as delayed immune reconstitution, higher rates of infection-related mortality in the early post-transplant period, and lower cell dose per unit[2][3][5][6].

Other names

unrelated donor umbilical cord bloodallogeneic unrelated umbilical cord bloodUCB from unrelated donor