BIO INSURANCE

BIO INSURANCE It costs Rs 59,900 to store stem cells for 21 years.

Stem cells, master cells of the human body that are at the cutting edge of medical treatment, can now be banked like savings for a rainy day. A 16,000 sq ft lab at Keelakotaiyur near Chennai has just been set up to store stem cells taken from the blood in a baby's umbilical cord.

Asia Cryo-Cell, the company that built the cord blood stem cell bank, charges parents Rs 59,900 to store a newborn's stem cells for 21 years. It is a form of “bio-insurance”,

Cord blood stem cells, which were first used in a transplant in France in 1988, are preserved in cryo-vials at -195 degrees centigrade. The donor and the immediate family can access the cells anytime.

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cord blood stem cells were easier to collect than an alternative source such as the bone marrow of adults.

In comparison, cord blood stem cells are also unexposed to disease.  Also, cord blood does not present an ethical dilemma as the umbilical cord has always been discarded as bio-medical waste.

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