MSE has launched an adaptor designed to deal with varying volumes in umbilical cord stemcell extraction.
Developed with the help of a manufacturer in blood bags and automated collection systems, the MSE StemXtract system is designed to give the safest and most effective separation of cord blood to date.
Cord blood is increasingly being used for the harvesting of stem cells, which can be used to help treat a wide range of conditions, such as cerebral palsy, autoimmune diseases, spinal cord injury and Type 1 diabetes.
But cord blood centrifugation is far from straight forward. Regular blood banking is set up in such a way that all samples in a blood bank are the same volume – typically 500ml.
With cord blood, the sample size will depend on how much blood is able to be extracted from each umbilical cord, and samples can vary hugely. When placed in a standard blood bag centrifuge insert the smallest samples will crumple and may even burst - losing precious stem cells.
The patented concept of the StemXtract system is simple; one side of the adaptor is removable and comes in a range of different thicknesses, so as to support the bag properly, no matter what the volume is.
The adaptor frame slots straight into the centrifuge bucket, leaving space on either side for the storage of any additional bags or tubes attached to the bag. A two-part insert fits inside the frame; one part is of a constant size and makes up three sides of the finished adaptor.
The other part completes the adaptor; it comes in varying thicknesses so that when assembled by the user, the adaptor’s cavity will be the right volume to accommodate and firmly support each individual bag.
The adaptor is also designed to overcome potential issues of using extra foam padding only, which would simply push down under G force, squashing theat the bottom of the bucket and making it more difficult to remove the blood bag.
