[pkukp9]

In a perfect world, I think everyone has access to their own stem cells as opposed to sifting thru donor pool.

Donating is definitely awesome, but there's a lot of research surrounding how cord blood transplantation from related donors (or yourself) increases your chance of survival from a stem cell transplant vs. using an unrelated donor. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejm199708073370602 - there's a chance of rejection. This woman found a partial match, but she was lucky. I assume she's only 2 races or a common mix i.e. half white, half something else

Finding a match later on can also be much more expensive than keeping your own!

[xputer]

It's better to donate to a public bank. According to the AAP the child itself is almost certainly not going to be able to benefit from their own stem cells because whatever disease you're trying to treat them for is most likely already present in the stem cells. It can be used to treat siblings though. But overall the advice is to donate to a public bank unless you already have a child with a medical condition in your family that could benefit from cord blood from their sibling.

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/pediatrics/119...

[vore]

In this case, the cord blood had a genetic mutation that conferred HIV immunity, so I think it's only thanks to the donor pool this was possible.

[faeyanpiraat]

How can you store your own?

[beembeem]

I've done this with my wisdom teeth when they needed to come out. I used this company: ndpl.net. There were a few competitors but it's been years since I looked into it. My stem cells are sitting in a lab, frozen, awaiting my command to send them anywhere in the world for medical treatment.

[MPSimmons]

I still have some wisdom teeth way up and back. They were too far back to conveniently remove. Do they still have fetal stem-cells in them that can be harvested, if need be?

[beembeem]

Yes. As long as the pulp of the tooth is healthy.

From what I've read, there's a tradeoff with time prior to removal however. The earlier in your life you take them out and freeze them, the higher their regeneration factor is. The DPSC (Dental Pulp Stem Cells) should always be there as long as the tooth is alive.

[nmfisher]

We're expecting a baby, and in hospital waiting rooms we've been approached by a few different companies hawking cord-blood storage (in Singapore).

After some brief research I concluded it was probably a waste of money for us as donors, but it's probably valuable to donate for someone else. I haven't yet asked our obstetrician whether that's an option.

[pkukp9]

with companies like mine haha AnjaHealth.com - we send parents a kit, they can collect, we pick it up and bring it to a lab, and parents can access it later in life