Finnish Red Cross Blood Service, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland. sari.juutistenaho@veripalvelu.fi
Perinatal characteristics, variably utilized in cord blood (CB) selection for banking, affect CB hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs). The association between perinatal stress factors and CB unit HPCs was evaluated.
Umbilical arterial (UA) pH, absolute and relative birth weight (BW) and placental weight (PW), and PW/BW ratio of 167 healthy, full-term infants were compared with CB unit prefreeze total nucleated cells (TNCs), total CD34+ (TCD34+) cells, and total colony-forming unit (CFU-TOT) number. Cesarean section (C-section, n = 104) and vaginal delivery subgroups were also analyzed.
UA pH (median, 7.28; range, 7.04-7.40) correlated with CB unit CFU-TOT number (n = 166; r = -0.32, p