1, illegal use of umbilical cord blood was investigated.
On August 27th, local time, Japanese police arrested six people, including the director of a clinic in Tokyo, for allegedly violating the Law on the Safety and Security of Regenerative Medicine. They treated patients with umbilical cord blood without reporting to the state. After investigation, the police found that many patients were from China. The cord blood involved in this case comes from a private cord blood bank that went bankrupt eight years ago in Ibaraki Prefecture. At that time, the private umbilical cord blood bank kept more than 1000 umbilical cord blood samples and sold them to 12 medical institutions through intermediaries in Fukuoka and Kyoto. After receiving umbilical cord blood, these medical institutions charge each consumer a fee ranging from 6,543.8+0,000 to several million yen to provide umbilical cord blood treatment. At present, the police are conducting a detailed investigation into the recruitment of patients from China by the dean and others or on the grounds that umbilical cord blood has a cosmetic effect.
According to a report by NHK News Network on the 28th, six people, including Kensuke Shouto, director and doctor of a clinic in Shibuya, Tokyo, and Minako Ameku, a Fukuoka woman suspected of selling umbilical cord blood, were arrested by Japanese police on the 27th. They were suspected of treating seven patients with umbilical cord blood in medical institutions in Tokyo and Osaka from February last year to April this year without reporting to the state.
It is reported that the police did not confirm whether the six people involved in the case admitted the charges, but NHK visited them in Shouteng and Inoue respectively before they were arrested. At that time, Shou Teng said that he did not report the umbilical cord blood treatment to the patient because he believed that the seller of umbilical cord blood was not illegal. Inoue said, "I never thought (umbilical cord blood) would be used illegally."
According to the police, about 65,438+000 people in China, including many Japanese patients, received umbilical cord blood treatment after the implementation of the Law on Selling Cord Blood in June+065,438 438+ 10/0, 2008. At present, the police are investigating in detail whether Shouteng and others recruited patients from China on the grounds that umbilical cord blood has cosmetic effects.
According to China Times, police investigation found that the cord blood involved in this case came from a private cord blood bank in Ibaraki Prefecture, which went bankrupt eight years ago. At that time, the private umbilical cord blood bank kept more than 1000 umbilical cord blood samples and sold them to 12 medical institutions through intermediaries in Fukuoka and Kyoto. After receiving umbilical cord blood, these medical institutions charge each consumer a fee ranging from 6,543.8+0,000 to several million yen to provide umbilical cord blood treatment. It is said that most people who received umbilical cord blood treatment at that time did not get the expected effect, and may be infected with diseases such as hepatitis.
2. What is the function of umbilical cord blood?
Umbilical cord blood is the blood left in placenta and umbilical cord after fetal delivery, umbilical cord ligation and disconnection, and is usually discarded. However, in recent ten years, it has been found that umbilical cord blood contains hematopoietic stem cells that can rebuild human hematopoietic and immune systems, and can be used for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation to treat more than 80 diseases. Therefore, umbilical cord blood has become an important source of hematopoietic stem cells, especially unrelated hematopoietic stem cells, and it is also a very important human biological resource.
Umbilical cord blood is rich in hematopoietic stem cells. As one of the three major sources of hematopoietic stem cells, it can treat diseases such as thalassemia and aplastic anemia. Umbilical cord blood can treat not only diseases of blood system, but also immune system, genetic metabolism and congenital diseases. Worldwide, umbilical cord blood has been used for more than 80 diseases.
Since the successful completion of the first umbilical cord blood hematopoietic stem cell transplantation operation more than 30 years ago, the number of clinical cases of umbilical cord blood hematopoietic stem cell transplantation worldwide has increased year by year. According to the latest data, there are more than 40,000 cases of umbilical cord blood transplantation in the world. There are also more than 3,000 successful cases in China. From the data alone, the role of umbilical cord blood can not be underestimated.
Although we don't know whether umbilical cord blood is reliable as a raw material for skin care products, as an effective way to treat blood diseases at present, the application prospect of umbilical cord blood is still very broad. At present, cord blood storage has been recognized by more and more people as an important health investment, but it should be noted that professional institutions should be selected for cord blood storage. Life Bank is one of the largest stem cell resource banks in the world, and 25 cord blood banks have been established nationwide, covering two-thirds of the territory of China. At present, there are nearly 400,000 umbilical cord blood stores, and 15 professional guardians guard life and health.
3. Should cord blood be stored?
Umbilical cord blood is the blood left in umbilical cord and placenta extracted from umbilical vein after fetal delivery and umbilical cord rupture. After nearly 30 years of medical research, it has been found that umbilical cord blood is rich in hematopoietic stem cells and has good differentiation and proliferation ability. It can be differentiated into red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets and other blood components, and can be used for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation to treat related diseases. So the essence of storing umbilical cord blood is to store hematopoietic stem cells. Families who choose to store their children's cord blood can choose to use their own cord blood, that is, according to the doctor's advice, use autologous cord blood for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation or related adjuvant therapy.
At present, the three major sources of hematopoietic stem cells are bone marrow blood, peripheral blood and umbilical cord blood, and the three major sources of hematopoietic stem cells have their own advantages and disadvantages, which complement each other in clinical use.
Umbilical cord blood is gradually cherished by the medical community because of its advantages of convenient collection, no harm to the collection population, timely clinical application, low rejection rate after transplantation and light degree. Parents also realize the value of umbilical cord blood and choose to keep it for their children.
It is understood that since the establishment of the first cord blood bank in the world in the 1990s, nearly 300 cord blood banks have been established around the world. By the end of 20 14, the storage of umbilical cord blood had reached 4.76 million copies, including 4.03 million copies stored in families and 730,000 copies stored in public libraries. China started late. After more than ten years of development, the cord blood bank industry has accumulated nearly 900,000 umbilical cord blood hematopoietic stem cells, and received nearly 654.38+million umbilical cord blood hematopoietic stem cells donated by citizens. It can be seen that autologous storage of umbilical cord blood has been widely recognized to some extent in the world.
Any new thing should be viewed from the perspective of all-round development. Taking the storage of autologous umbilical cord blood as an example, it is a reflection of family health protection consciousness to consider saving a cord blood for children. Before deciding whether to do it or not, we should have a comprehensive understanding with a peaceful mind, and then make a correct judgment with an objective and scientific understanding, instead of following others' advice.