Is there an expiration date for a cord blood unit in storage?

Access through your institution Buy or subscribe With improving expertise and supportive care, cord blood (CB) transplants are now associated with outcomes comparable to unrelated and

sibling donor transplants.1 There is a need to increase the size and diversity of international CB inventories and to retain cryopreserved CB units for as long as safely possible. There are

_in vitro_ data supporting >90% recovery of hematopoietic progenitor cells from frozen CB cells stored for up to 12 years,2 and data showing that progenitor cell recoveries from

short-term freeze samples ranging from 2 to 8 weeks are comparable to those cryopreserved for 10–15 years.3,4 Broxmeyer _et al._5 reported adequate recovery (80–100%) of

granulocyte–macrophage and multi-potential hematopoietic progenitors from functional CB units cryopreserved for up to 23.5 years as well as recovery of viable progenitor cells from CBs

frozen for 15 years, which were able to generate CD45+ human cell engraftment when infused into sublethally irradiated NOD-SCID mice and were comparable to that reported with fresh CB.6

Despite this _in vitro_ evidence, transplant physicians still remain concerned about the possible loss of integrity of frozen CB units associated with longer durations of storage.7 In one

report, the incidence of bag breaks over a 6.5-year period was 3.5%, where 75% of the breaches occurred in units that had been cryopreserved for >2 years.7 Therefore, it is important to

determine whether prolonged time of cryopreservation and storage may adversely affect clinical transplant outcomes, and with the new US Food and Drug Administration licensing regulations for

CB units this question has become even more relevant: 'is there an expiration date for CB unit in storage?'. We reviewed 86 consecutive single CB transplant recipients in the

period from March 1996 to June 2011, where 15 patients received CB units older than 5 years (CB age 12.2 years=1; >8 years=3; >7 years= 1; >6 years=2; >5 years=8). The vast

majority of the CB units were obtained from NMDP (National Marrow Donor Program) or Netcord Banks (American Red Cross Portland=1; AUNCB=1; Australia=1; Barcelona=5; Belgium=5; Bergan

Paramus, NJ, USA=1; Caitlin Raymond, UK=1; NC, USA=1; Colorado=9; Dusseldorf=10; France=1; JP McCarthy, USA=1; London=5; MD Anderson=2; Italy=9; NYCB=16; Puget Sound, OR, USA=1; Spain=2; St

Louis=13; Tokyo=1). All CB units underwent washing and RBC depletion before freezing. The median length of storage of CB units was 2 years (range, 0.03–12 years). For the purpose of

analysis, duration of CB unit storage was divided into four equal quartiles as well as an arbitrary cutoff of 5 years based on the common practice adopted by some public and private CB

banks. Standard thawing procedures were followed at the MD Anderson Cell Therapy Laboratory.8 The pre-infusion viabilities were >90%. Patient and CB unit characteristics are described in

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are calculated during checkout ADDITIONAL ACCESS OPTIONS: * Log in * Learn about institutional subscriptions * Read our FAQs * Contact customer support REFERENCES * Laughlin MJ, Eapen M,

Rubinstein P, Wagner JE, Zhang MJ, Champlin RE _et al_. Outcomes after transplantation of cord blood or bone marrow from unrelated donors in adults with leukemia. _N Engl J Med_ 2004; 351:

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observations. _J Amer Statist Assoc_ 1958; 53: 457–481. Article  Google Scholar  Download references AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Department of Stem Cell Transplantation and

Cellular Therapy, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA S Parmar, P Kongtim, A Alousi, C Hosing, U Popat, P Kebriaei, I McNiece, E Shpall, G Rondon & R

Champlin * University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA M de Lima * Division of Pediatrics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer

Center, Houston, TX, USA L Worth, D Petropoulos, D Lee & L Cooper Authors * S Parmar View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * M de Lima View

author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * L Worth View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * D

Petropoulos View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * D Lee View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

* L Cooper View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * P Kongtim View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google

Scholar * A Alousi View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * C Hosing View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed 

Google Scholar * U Popat View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * P Kebriaei View author publications You can also search for this author

inPubMed Google Scholar * I McNiece View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * E Shpall View author publications You can also search for this

author inPubMed Google Scholar * G Rondon View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * R Champlin View author publications You can also search for

this author inPubMed Google Scholar CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to S Parmar. ETHICS DECLARATIONS COMPETING INTERESTS The authors declare no conflict of interest. RIGHTS AND

PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Parmar, S., de Lima, M., Worth, L. _et al._ Is there an expiration date for a cord blood unit in storage?. _Bone

Marrow Transplant_ 49, 1109–1112 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/bmt.2014.92 Download citation * Published: 23 April 2014 * Issue Date: August 2014 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/bmt.2014.92

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