Umbilical cord stem cells are considered to be the ‘youngest’ and ‘freshest’ types of cells. What this means is that because they are just a minute old and do not have the immune history that bone marrow stem cells and other sources may have.
They are more readily accepted by the patient in a transplant setting, and studies show that there is a lower incidence of Graft Versus Host Disease or GvHD (when the patient’s immune system rejects the transplanted cells). Umbilical cord stem cells also have a broader match potential in comparison to those from other sources because they do not need to be an exact genetic match due to the nature of umbilical cord stem cells.