Cord blood, as it is known, contains stem cells which can be used to cure leukemia and other diseases and may someday treat ailments ranging from diabetes, lupus, muscular dystrophy to Alzheimer’s. For “as little as $1,100″, the ads read, preserved cord blood taken from your son or daughter could provide “biological insurance” if the child or another family member developed one of those diseases. Is it worth it?

“There are well over 70 diseases that have been successfully treated using umbilical cord blood stem cells, and there are many diseases — from Parkinson’s to stroke to heart disease to spinal-cord injuries and Alzheimer’s — in promising stages of research and development right now,” said Mercedes Walton, interim CEO of Cryo-Cell International in Oldsmar, Fla. Her firm is one of the three largest cord blood companies, along with Cord Blood Registry and Viacord in Cambridge, Mass.

At the University of Minnesota Stem Cell Biology Laboratory, you can actually “hope” and see the energy that leads to cures: It’s the wispy white wave under the tropical sunset. The white wisps are stem cells that have been spun out of the blood by a centrifuge. The sunset-colored fluid above them is plasma tinted with red blood cells.

Researchers, including Catherine Verfaillie, M.D., director of the world-renowned Stem Cell Institute at the University of Minnesota, are focused on that white line of stem cells because it holds the future promise for improving success rates of cord blood transplants. Their hope is that under the right laboratory conditions, they can get the stem cells to naturally make more of themselves - thus increasing the dose available from a single donor to a transplant patient.

In April, a national panel of scientists recommended at least tripling the 50,000 cord-blood units now available through public banks, saying it would enable nearly 90 percent of the 11,700 Americans needing transplants each year to find cord blood or bone marrow matches.

It is possible that your child’s cord-blood could be used to treat someone else and save his or her life. In turn another child’s cord-blood could be used to save your son or daughter’s life.

Kurtzberg’s research at Duke has found that the immature blood cells have the ability to develop into brain and heart muscle cells. Research done by ViaCell also shows that the cells can develop into heart, neurological and liver cells. Clinical trials are being done using the cells for heart repair. Around the world reports are coming in for successful treatment of various diseases using stem cells.

Dr. Michael Trigg, who chairs Cryo-Cell’s medical and scientific advisory board and is chief of the division of blood and bone marrow transplantation at the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Del said “It’s expensive, and you will have to pay for it every year. But you just have no idea what life holds for you or the curative potential of those blood cells sitting in storage.”

The cost to store cord blood is currently high for some people. However the potential benefit is limitless. If you can afford, by all means I think you should try to preserve you child’s cord blood. It is the greatest gift you can give to your child and the future generation.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with any cord blood companies in any way.

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