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American Morning

Why Save Your Baby's Umbilical Cord?

Aired April 25, 2002 - 09:22   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: And we're going to move on to some medical news at this hour. This is a question a lot of parents may have on their mind as they're about ready to bring a new one into the world. Why save your babies umbilical cord? Well more parents now are actually saving the blood from their newborn baby's umbilical cord, freezing it for the future. Umbilical cord is rich - the blood that is, is rich in stem cells that manufacture blood and disease- fighting immune cells and expectant parents are being told that banking the blood could one day save their child's life and help cure a range of diseases. But are the claims overblown? What, if anything, can parents take to the blood bank? Joining us now from Los Angeles, Dr. Michael Lill, head of the blood and marrow transplant program at Cedars Sinai Medical Center. Thank you for getting up so early for us this morning Dr. Lill.

DR. MICHAEL LILL, CEDARS SINAI MEDICAL CENTER: You're welcome.

ZAHN: First of all, why do you think parents should bank their children's umbilical cord blood?

LILL: I think there are two major reasons. The first one is involved traditionally banking it in case it's needed for transplant for diseases such as leukemia. And these fortunately strike very few children so the vast majority of cord bloods banked for that purpose are unlikely to be used.

The second reason I think has been driving a lot of enthusiasm lately has been increasing interest in using these stem cells in other diseases. Now that's currently more of a theoretical issue rather than a proven reality, as nobody has actually been treated with stem cells in that fashion. But I think that part of the enthusiasm over the last years - year has been driven by the embryonic stem cell debate and the belief that the stem cells may become useful in the future for a variety of diseases.

ZAHN: And if they do become useful, what would happen? Are you saying if a parent wouldn't need it for their, would that be useful to someone else's child perhaps who's fighting a life-threatening disease?

LILL: It can be used for other children as well. There are large un-related cord blood banks that have been set up by the National Institutes of Health. But the (INAUDIBLE) banks are being set up primarily to save umbilical cord blood for future use of the baby themselves.

ZAHN: And what is it about this blood from the umbilical cord that makes it so distinctly different from other blood?

LILL: Well it contains the type of stem cells that are present in the bone marrow in adults but they have different characteristics that make them, in some areas, some fashions, easier to transplant and they have the ability to proliferation more than the same stem cells that are obtained from bone marrow.

ZAHN: Now we should say, in the interest of full disclosure, you are on advisory board for privately run California cryo (ph) bank but we have seen, obviously, an increase of parents across the country banking this kind of cord blood. Do you recommend that all parents do this given the fact that you said just a very small percentage of children born will be afflicted with the kind of diseases we're talking about here?

LILL: I think it's a choice that one can make. It's not what I would put at the top of my list of things to spend money on. It's not as expensive as has been publicized previously. And - so I think it's more in the nature of a choice that some parents will make and the chance that it may become useful in the future.

ZAHN: Well Dr. Michael Lill, we really appreciate your time this morning in helping us better understand all the issues surrounding the interest in cord blood. Good luck to you. Dr. Michael Lill of Cedar's Sinai Medical Center.

LILL: Thank you.

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