How is Umbilical Cord Lining Collected, Processed and Stored?
Step 1
Cord lining will be collected by cutting a segment of your baby’s umbilical cord. Obtaining the umbilical cord is just an extension of your baby’s cord blood collection. After your baby’s cord blood has been collected, your obstetrician or midwife will clamp and cut a segment of the umbilical cord. This cord will be stored in a sterile container provided in your Umbilical Cord Collection Kit. This process is entirely safe and painless for both mother and child.
Step 2
The umbilical cord collected is then sent to Cordlife's laboratory for processing and cryopreservation. Prior to processing, the identity of the umbilical cord collected is verified by our laboratory technologist to ensure that the unit belongs to the right client. All subsequent steps are performed in a biohazard safety cabinet to further eliminate the risk of contamination.
Step 3
Next, the umbilical cord is further processed by removing all the other components, leaving only cord lining. The cord lining is then cleaned with wash buffer solution and segmented into small pieces.
Step 4
The decontaminated segments are then transferred into multiple cryovials added with cryoprotectant solution to safeguard the viability of the segments during cryopreservation.
Step 5
Once the cryoprotectant solution has been added, the cord lining segments are frozen gradually in the controlled-rate freezer, where the temperature is lowered by 1-2°C per minute to preserve the viability of the stem cells.
Step 6
After the controlled-rate freezing process, the cryovials are transferred into a MVE anti-contamination vapour-phase liquid nitrogen storage system for long term cryopreservation at -190°C.
