How Long Will Cord Blood Last?

Many parents who are considering banking their infant’s cord blood, often wonder how long the cord blood can be saved before it starts to deteriorate.  Banking cord blood is a new enough procedure that scientists don’t have an answer to that question yet.

The data for cord blood involves specimens that have been frozen for 10-12 years.  In those specimens, there seems to be no deterioration.  This doesn’t say that cord blood will not last longer, it just says that there has never been any research conducted on specimens that have been stored longer.

The closest analogy is frozen sperm, and there is a great deal of data using sperm.  Researchers have found that with sperm, there is no deterioration after 25-30 years and no expected deterioration after that.

While there is no research with extremely long-term storage with cord blood, there is no reason to believe that it can not be stored indefinitely.



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