Korean mothers beginning to use stem cell banks.

(From The Korea Herald)

By O Youn-hee After 28-year old housewife Choi Ji-young gave birth to a boy last June, she had her son's stem cell extracted from the umbilical cord blood and stored at a stem cell bank.

Her husband, a doctor, and other pregnant women at the hospital persuaded her to join one of the companies that store stem cells from the placenta of new-born babies for several years after birth for use in an emergency. "When I was pregnant, I heard that keeping the infant's stem cell from the cord blood is popular these days because it can become very useful if the baby gets an intractable disease," Choi told The Korea Herald. "I think following their suggestion was an excellent choice for my little son, In-woo." Storing away an infant's stem cell from the placenta has become increasingly popular since the end of last year, particularly among young mothers like Choi. Experts describe cord blood as the 21st century's newest medical treasure chest.

Until a few years ago, patients diagnosed with leukemia or any other severe blood disease required transplants of healthy bone marrow from other people to regenerate clean and healthy blood. The problem was finding suitable bone marrow donors from the patient's families, relatives or other people.

In 1988, a French medical center transplanted cord blood that had been abandoned after a child's birth to a patient suffering from traumatic anemia.

The transplant was an unexpected success and after much study it was found that hematopoientic stem cells and mesencnymal stem cells which regenerate blood exist abundantly in the placenta. Since then, the United States and a number of European countries have established private stem cell banks for family members and public stem cell banks where cord blood from common donors is collected.

In Korea, stem cell transplants were not known until 1998 and were not popular for some years because the nation's medical insurance service did not pay any benefits for operations. In the second half of 2002, however, the medical insurance program decided to cover the costs.