Prevalence of bacterial contamination of cord blood stem cells units stored in cord blood bank of the Academic Center for Education, Culture and Research (ACECR), Qom between 2012 to 2015

Umbilical cord blood has been used as a major source of hematopoietic stem cells to treat a variety of blood diseases. There is bacterial contamination risk during sampling from the umbilical cord and the processing related to it. The aim of this study was to determine the origin and type of bacterial contamination contaminated samples available in cord blood bank of the Academic Center for Education, Culture and Research (ACECR), Qom.

In this study, 370 units of cord blood were collected and examined for bacterial contamination. In order to identify the source of pollution, preparation and determination culture strains was carry out in both blood sampling and finally to storage levels. Results were analyzed by SPSS software.

A total of 370 cord blood units, 5 units had bacterial contamination. The number of units in phase 2 was positive for bacterial cultures and 3 blood samples were also positive after processing.

In this study, the rates of bacterial infections were reported as 5% in both the blood sampling and the processing, and the majority of isolated bacteria were of Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis, however, due to the high value and importance of blood stem cell cord and the risk of septic transplantation, develop training programs in order to obtain a sterile preparation is necessary.