[ cord blood bank in Tunisia: usefulness and feasibility]

ABSTRACT

The cord blood is a souce of hematopoietic stem cells. This have encouraged the creation of many cord blood banks around the world. By this prospective study during 2 years, we tryed to show the advantages of such sources of progenitors, and to evaluate our techniques of collection, freezing, biological and microbiological survey. For this aim, we tested 100 specimens of cord blood before and after defrosting. Our selection criteria were a volume >/= 60 ml, a CD 34+ cells count >/= 2. 10[6], bacteriological and serological negativity. This 100 specimens have an average volume of 95,22 ml, an average nuclear cells count of 10,95.10[6] and an average CD 34+ cells count of 2,96. 10[6]. The average cells viability after defrosting is 96,69%, and the average efficiency rate of 92,11%. The specimens selected according to our selection criterias were of 39%. Our results confirm the feasibility of a cord blood bank in the "Centre National de Transfusion Sanguine" in Tunis