Top Testing of Cord Blood Units Accredited laboratories experienced in handling large numbers of clinical samples perform characterization and quality control testing of our cord blood units. Testing The University of Colorado Clinical Immunology and Histocompatibility Laboratory performs HLA testing of all our cord blood units. The listing of high resolution DNA typing for HLA-DRB1 alleles in our database means that you will know immediately if we have a match for your patient. The infectious disease testing strategy for our Cord Blood Bank was designed to insure optimal protection of cord blood recipients against transmissible infectious diseases. Additionally, all units are evaluated in microbial assays for growth of anaerobic bacteria, aerobic bacteria, and fungus.
Antibiotic sensitivities are determined for all aerobic bacterial organisms.
Cord units that test positive for HIV are discarded. Cord units that are positive for the other tests listed above are maintained in permanent quarantine freezers that are geographically separate from the routine Cord Blood Bank freezers. Every cord blood donor is screened by the Colorado State Health Department with a hemoglobin electropheresis for transmissible genetic diseases including sickle cell anemia and thalassemia. The results are transferred immediately to our Cord Blood Bank. Additional molecular screening will be incorporated as warranted by developments in the field.