In an attempt to facilitate the stem cell research in Australia, the researchers have planned to use the placenta to collect stem cell for study. Researchers think that placenta would be more useful than the traditional umbilical cord blood stem cell. An associated company expects to offer stem cell banking from next year.

The placenta blood is thought to be rich in stem cell and they have the potential to develop into surface tissues of the body, such as the skin, lungs and the digestive tract. In the placenta and umbilical cord were so-called mesenchymal stem cells, precursors of bone and cartilage, which might help regenerate them in diseases such as arthritis, or in accident injuries.

Doctors on the other hand also fear that the proposed service, costing families about $5000, preys on the fears of new parents and has insufficient scientific backing. Doctors said privately stored cord blood had been, promulgated for all sorts of potential uses but none of those are currently leading to therapeutics. Suitable tissue matches could almost always be made from hundreds of thousands of cord blood samples stored in public banks.

Source: North Queensland Register