About Americord

This cord blood banking company, Americord Registry LLC, provides services of cord blood banking and cord tissue as well as banking of tissue of the placenta.  The company Americord was founded in 2008 and is based in New York.  For the period of ten years, the company strives to provide the most technologically advanced products and has developed multiple treatment options for their clients in order to provide best possible outcomes at a reasonable cost.  Americord is focused on investigating unique and innovative solutions that maximize the utility of banked units, with a milestone to improve the quality of life and treat serious conditions by using hematopoietic stem cells.

Americord is one of the companies reviewed in many categories in this article that you should read before any decision to find out which is the best cord blood bank for you.

Americord is currently a leading company with regards to an innovative approach to cord blood, cord tissue, and placenta tissue banking.  The innovative solutions allow Americord to collect twice as many stem cells in a sample when compared to the industry standard.

Cord Blood 2.0

According to their own claims, this revolutionary technology enables Americord to store and preserve twice the number of stem cells when compared with an industry standard.  The current industry standard is 60 milliliters of cord blood tissue per unit.  Cord Blood 2.0 technology allows 150 milliliters to be collected in a single sample.  This technique from Americord has solved one of the major setbacks of cord blood banking.  The standard industry sample size was sufficient to treat a patient weighing up to 65lb.  With Cord Blood 2.0 being available, larger patients weighing up to 165 lb are also eligible for treatment.  Additionally, this technology enables the children to be treated with autologous stem cell transplantation not only during the early childhood but also during adolescence and early adulthood.

Cord Tissue Sampling

Cord tissue stem cells differ from those isolated from cord blood.  Stem cells originating from cord tissue are the so-called mesenchymal stem cells.  Their main characteristic is that they are multipotent i.e. they can differentiate into multiple cell types.  A plenty of research is currently underway, with the main objective to explore the multiple possibilities of use of this type of cells in the management of Alzheimer’s disease, spinal cord injuries, diabetes and many other serious chronic conditions.  Banking of mesenchymal stem cells, also a practice from Americord,  opens a whole new world of possibilities and offers a wide range of options in the treatment of heart diseases, metabolic disturbances, injuries or even cancer. No doubt of the importance of cord blood banking with so many new opportunities of utilization nowadays.

Placenta Tissue Banking

The placenta contains mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) that belong to the mother.  These cells are responsible for placental growth and differentiation during pregnancy.  MSCs isolated from placenta have a potential to differentiate into a wide range of mature cells.  These cells represent a compatible match to the mother, which enables mothers to be treated with this precious resource.  Banking of MSCs allows mothers to have an access to a source of renewable cells used in antiaging therapy, regenerative medicine and other fields of use of innovative stem cell technologies to treat various conditions related to immune system disorders or neurological disorders.  It has been demonstrated that these cells are well tolerated by the host.  They may produce immunomodulatory molecules such as cytokines and therefore modify the host’s immune response, ensuring that they will not be rejected after transplantation.

Collection Kit

Americord offers a collection kit that is specifically designed to provide the maximum flexibility and the best care to the parents and healthcare professionals.  Americord , registered with the AABB, uses the only FDA approved sterile exterior collection bag that is ready to use for both the vaginal and C-section types of delivery.  The collection kit contains all the equipment pertinent to the collection of samples.  Regardless of the parents’ decision what to bank, Americord collection kit always has the equipment required to collect all 3 sources of stem cells originating from cord blood, cord tissue or placenta.  Each collection kit contains the informed consent along with the instructions for use that are user-friendly.  If the parents decide to bank only cord blood, but later on choose to store other tissues such as cord tissue or placenta, they will still use the same kit.  If the parents give up banking at the last minute, Americord did not charge any cancellation fees in the past, something that adds to the analysis of the costs of cord blood banking and will help you to decide if you will donate cord blood to a public cord blood bank like Carolina, or instead go to a private cord blood bank like this one. Check the current agreements with Americord, and also with their competitors such as Viacord and CBR if they offer you the same advantages.

Online Banking

Americord offers an innovative and easy-to-use e-commerce website that allows the parents to order and purchase the services online in a simple and comprehensive manner.  Their website offers expecting parents to get the necessary information regarding cord blood, cord tissue and placenta tissue banking in order to make the best possible decision for the future.  Subscription and purchase process is as easy and user-friendly as for any other online service.

Insurance In Americord

Americord operates by implementing the highest standards within the industry of stem cells preservation.  In the past, the failure of stem cells to engraft was covered by the insurance fee. Check if Americord is currently offering this insurance. Our finding is that they are not covering this insurance, as other companies are doing. The fee is sufficient to cover the expenses related to the acquisition of alternative sources of stem cells if there is a medical need.

Other Benefits Claimed by Americord

Americord has been licensed by the US FDA for banking of cord blood, cord tissue and placenta tissue.  It is one of the few banks in the United States to obtain registration for banking of placenta tissue.  Following collection and processing, parents are provided with the certificate containing information regarding the number of harvested cells as well as the quality of the sample.  Americord does not charge any services related to the release of stem cells for therapeutic purposes.  The company’s central laboratory is registered by the US FDA and accredited by AABB.  This lab also functions as a public bank for storage of samples used for bone marrow and/or hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.  Americord actively supports investigations related to the therapeutic use of stem cells originating from cord blood, cord or placenta tissue.  Americord has released three units of cord blood that were used successfully during autologous transplantation procedure.  Several studies funded by Americord are underway to investigate the most effective methods for obtaining the highest possible number of stem cells from the placenta.

There are other investigations in Americord, one of the current goals of treating HIV/AIDS is to provide a unique and effective treatment modality that will induce a life-long remission of HIV with less discomfort caused by serious side effects of the current treatment.  Hematopoietic stem cells that are genetically modified to be HIV resistant could provide a cure for HIV/AIDS with a single treatment.  Specifically designed hematopoietic stem cells containing anti-HIV genes are capable of self-renewal and may provide long-term remission of HIV patient during the lifetime.  A significant number of clinical trials are currently underway to investigate this precious potential of hematopoietic stem cells.