Umbilical Cord Blood Banking for Transplantation in Morocco: Problems and opportunities

Since the success of the first umbilical cord blood (UCB) transplantation in a child with Fanconi anaemia in 1989, great interests have emerged for this source of stem cells. UCB provides an unlimited source of ethnically diverse stem cells and is an alternative for bone marrow (BM) and peripheral blood (PB) haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Thus, UCB and manipulated stem cells are now collected and banked according to international accreditation standards for listing on registries allowing rapid search and accessibility worldwide. This work aims to identify problems limiting the creation of a Moroccan cord blood bank and to highlight opportunities and issues of a new legislation promoting additional applications of cell therapy.