Abstract

 Umbilical cord blood (UCB) is an alternative source of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells that can reconstitute hematopoietic system of patients with malignant or non malignant diseases. Its outstanding characteristics such as availability, donor risk free sample collection, lower GVHD incidence, and higher degree of replicability were the driving force for the public and private cord blood banks to be established for UCBs to be collected and stored for their final use in transplantation. After establishment of these banks, several umbilical cord blood networks developed. This paper presents some data about the establishment and status of the public cord blood bank in Iran together with a glance at stem cell blood banks in the world.

 Key words : Blood Banks , Umbilical Cord Blood, Iran