Perspectives for the Use of Umbilical Cord Blood in Transplantation and Beyond: Initiatives for an Advanced and Sustainable Public Banking Program in Greece

Abstract

The umbilical cord blood (UCB) donated in public UCB banks is a source of hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) alternative to bone marrow for allogeneic HSC transplantation (HSCT). However, the high rejection rate of the donated units due to the strict acceptance criteria and the wide application of the haploidentical HSCT have resulted in significant limitation of the use of UCB and difficulties in the economic sustainability of the public UCB banks. There is an ongoing effort within the UCB community to optimize the use of UCB in the field of HSCT and a parallel interest in exploring the use of UCB for applications beyond HSCT i.e., in the fields of cell therapy, regenerative medicine and specialized transfusion medicine. In this report, we describe the mode of operation of the three public UCB banks in Greece as an example of an orchestrated effort to develop a viable UCB banking system by (a) prioritizing the enrichment of the national inventory by high-quality UCB units from populations with rare human leukocyte antigens (HLA), and (b) deploying novel sustainable applications of UCB beyond HSCT, through national and international collaborations. The Greek paradigm of the public UCB network may become an example for countries, particularly with high HLA heterogeneity, with public UCB banks facing sustainability difficulties and adds value to the international efforts aiming to sustainably expand the public UCB banking system.