Cord, cord blood and placenta for research following delivery.v1

• Research type

  Research Tissue Bank

• IRAS ID

  171271

• Contact name

  Suzanne Watt

• Contact email

  suzanne.watt@@nhsbt.nhs.uk

• Research summary

  Blood and vascular tissue bioresource

• REC name

  South Central - Oxford C Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  15/SC/0027

• Date of REC Opinion

  4 Feb 2015

• REC opinion

  Favourable Opinion

• Data collection arrangements

  Samples/data will be stored at NHSBT Oxford or the OUH NHS Trust and access to these anonymised samples/data will only be provided to researchers for ethically approved research and where this has also been approved by the steering committee.

  A written information and consent form will be provided and written consent obtained if the mother wishes to donate umbilical cord blood, umbilical cord or placenta for ethically approved research. Staff trained to take consent will approach mothers with prior agreement of the midwifery or clinical care team at the OUH NHS Trust to discuss the possibility of donation. Trained staff will collect the samples after the delivery and provide these with a unique bar code to ensure the donor and donation is anonymised.

• Research programme

  Research conducted will include understanding the development of blood and blood vessel (vascular) cells from stem cells derived from so called 'adult' tissues such as cord blood, umbilical cord or placenta and how this is altered in disease (e.g. in leukaemias, sickle cell disease, preeclampsia). Understanding how these stem cells might be encouraged to form many tissues for tissue or organ repair and how the environment in which these stem cells reside affects their ability to form blood and to contribute to organ formation will also be studied. The placenta, umbilical cord blood and umbilical cord are normally discarded following delivery but would make an ideal source of material for investigations into the development of various cell types from these multipotent stem cells. Such projects would aim to determine the procedures that could be used to produce fully functional normal blood or living tissue grafts. Stem cell based and cellular therapies and organ transplants constitute a priority area for development by NHS Blood and Transplant and the wider NHS. The tissues and cells will not though be used for any treatments but to help develop safer therapies for the treatment of human diseases. The samples and clinical data would also help us understand how the prenatal/perinatal environment in which stem cells exist before birth can influence organ function or dysfunction in later life.

• Storage license

  11042

• RTBTitle

  Blood and vascular tissue bioresource

• Establishment organisation

  NHS Blood and Transplant-Oxford

• Establishment organisation address

  John Radcliffe Hospital, Headley Way

  Headington. Oxford

  OX3 9BQ