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Summary.We investigated the impact of maternal and fetal variables on cord blood (CB) haemopoietic stem/progenitor cell content. These included maternal age, ethnic origin, parity, ABO and Rhesus D blood group, antenatal haemoglobin, alcohol and cigarette consumption at time of registration, mode of delivery, duration of the first and second stages of labour, gestational age, birth weight, cord pH and cord erythrocyte mean cell volume (MCV). Cord volumes and total nucleated cellularities (TNC) were recorded, the colony assay for granulocyte-macrophage colony-forming-cells (CFU-GM) was used to quantify the progenitor cells and the potential of CFU-GM to produce secondary colonies on replating was used as a measure of progenitor cell quality. We found: (1) significantly greater ( P ¼ 0·04) volumes were collected from babies who weighed у 2·5 kg versus babies with a birth weight < 2·5 kg; (2) significantly greater numbers of mononuclear cells (MNC) from mothers who drank 0-3 units versus those who drank у 4 units of alcohol weekly ( P ¼ 0·03), and in babies with a cord pH р 7·1 v > 7·1 ( P ¼ 0·02); (3) Significantly greater numbers of cord CFU-GM in mothers who drank 0-3 v у 4 units weekly ( P ¼ 0·004) and smokers of у 10 v 0-9 cigarettes daily ( P ¼ 0·02) and in spontaneous vaginal deliveries than assisted vaginal and caesarean deliveries ( P ¼ 0·04), and (4) the potential of CFU-GM to produce secondary colonies was significantly greater in CB derived from Caucasians than from non-Caucasians ( P ¼ 0·02); in assisted vaginal delivery v spontaneous vaginal ( P ¼ 0·02) and in deliveries with prolonged first stage of labour v short first stage of labour ( P ¼ 0·04). We conclude that antenatal and perinatal variables may influence the CB stem/ progenitor cell yield available for transplantation.Keywords: maternal factors, fetal factors, progenitor assays, AUC.Human cord blood (CB) is an alternative source of haemopoietic stem cells for clinical transplantation. Over 500 related and unrelated CB transplants have been undertaken, mostly in children. The availability of CB may shorten the period needed to search for an unrelated donor in the case of recipients who have no sibling donor. Rubinstein et al (1993) found that unrelated cord blood was available at a median of 69 d versus > 2·5 months for bone marrow. More recently, during a search for unrelated CB for 85 high-risk leukaemic patients (Gluckman, personal communication), potential donations were identified for 65/ 85 patients (76%) at a median of 4 d (range 0-586); of these 59 donations fully eligible for transplantation were identified for 34 patients (40%) after a median of 47 d (1-449).The contribution of CB to adult transplantation remains limited due to the restricted number of stem/ progenitor cells available in CB donations (Wagner et al,

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Concentrating the care of patients with rectal cancer to a specialized team seems to improve quality and outcome.