Umbilical cord blood: Morphological composition and functional characteristics

During last decade umbilical cord blood attracts attention as an alternative source of hemopoieitic transplantable progenitors cells for treatment of various hematological diseases (Broxmeyer et al. 1992). During the whole gestational period hemopoietic switch from one hemopoietic site to another through circulation occurs (Tavasolli M. 1991). Definitive localisation of hemopoiesis in bone marrow is observed from 23rd week (Kelemen et al. 1979). So, cell composition of umbilical cord blood is similar to peripheral blood composition of fetus during last stage of gestation. There is considerable number of hemopoietic progenitor cells in umbilical cord blood. It has been shown that umbilical cord blood contained granulocyte-macrophage (CFU-GM), erythroid (CFU-E), and multipotential (CFU-GEMM) progenitors (Harris et al. 1994). However, data of different authors is incommensurable because it was obtained by different culture methods.