Relicord is an initiative by the Reliance Industries

Reliance Industries

Reliance Industries Limited is an Indian conglomerate company headquartered at Mumbai, India. The company operates through three business segments: petrochemicals, refining, and oil and gas, other segment of the company includes textile, retail business, special economic zone development and...

 in the field of biotechnological advancement. It is established as a part of the subsidiary of Reliance Industries, Reliance Life Sciences

Reliance Life Sciences

Reliance Life Sciences is a diversified and integrated biotechnology initiative of the Reliance group companies, India's largest private sector companies...

. ReliCord is the first to have a registered cord blood bank

Cord blood bank

A cord blood bank is a facility which stores umbilical cord blood for future use. Both private and public cord blood banks have developed since the mid- to late-1990s in response to the potential for cord blood transplants in treating diseases of the blood and immune systems.Public banks accept...

 and repository in India as well as the entire region of South East Asia. In terms of Biotechnology India is currently amongst the top five countries in the Asia Pacific region. Reliance Life Sciences and ReliCord are an endeavour by the Reliance Group to tap into this emerging market that has great potential.

About Relicord

ReliCord has already stored over 3,500 cord blood samples at its repository. It conforms to the AABB and USFDA guidelines and has an infrastructure to collect cord blood from any corner of the country through its collection centres. ReliCord offers public as well as private banking

Private banking

Private banking is banking, investment and other financial services provided by banks to private individuals investing sizable assets. The term "private" refers to the customer service being rendered on a more personal basis than in mass-market retail banking, usually via dedicated bank advisers...

 and is the only facility in India that offers stem cell research for current and future applications. The cord blood samples are stored at the Dhirubhai Ambani Life Sciences Centre (DALC) campus in Navi Mumbai. The repository is completely automated and uses the most advanced technology

Technology

Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...

 under the supervision of a host of experienced scientists.

Social view

ReliCord runs three programs for the collection of cord blood: ReliCord S, ReliCord A and ReliCord M. ReliCord S and ReliCord A offer stem cell enriched cord blood repository services as well as stem cell enriched cord blood for transplantation to address haematological disorders. ReliCord S is a program for sibling

Sibling

Siblings are people who share at least one parent. A male sibling is called a brother; and a female sibling is called a sister. In most societies throughout the world, siblings usually grow up together and spend a good deal of their childhood socializing with one another...

 donors. This program is for a mother or a family that wants to process and bank the umbilical cord blood stem cells from the present pregnancy. Only family members waiting for transplantation can utilize this program. Under ReliCord S the stored cord blood stem cells can be used for haematopoetic stem cell transplantation for family members suffering from diseases such as thalassemia

Thalassemia

Thalassemia is an inherited autosomal recessive blood disease that originated in the Mediterranean region. In thalassemia the genetic defect, which could be either mutation or deletion, results in reduced rate of synthesis or no synthesis of one of the globin chains that make up hemoglobin...

 or leukemia

Leukemia

Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...

. The ReliCord S and A program not only stores the stem cells but also tests and processes the same along with delivering the stem cells to the transplant site as per the direction received from the transplant physician.

Research

ReliCord A is meant for patients who require transplants with grafts from the repository. Under this program a patient first has to obtain his HLA profile to facilitate the availability of the graft. HLA profiling is also offered by Reliance Life Sciences. ReliCord M offers umbilical cord banking and cord tissue derived mesenchymal stem cells banking services as a combined storage service for parents-to-be. The Relicord M program offers umbilical cord collection, processing of the cord, culturing of mesenchymal stem cells and storage of cord tissue with 15 million stem cells. Before storage the cord blood is tested for HIV

HIV

Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...

, HBV, HCV and CMV. The blood is also typed for Human Leukocyte Antigens (HLA) Class 1 and 2 antigens before processing. The stem cell enriched cord blood is then cryo-preserved at the repository at a temperature of minus 196 degrees Celsius. Stem cell enriched cord blood can be used as a therapy for the treatment of thalassemia, leukemia, brain tumor, meuroblastoma and sickle cell anaemia and can be used as an adjunct therapy for chemotherapy

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is the treatment of cancer with an antineoplastic drug or with a combination of such drugs into a standardized treatment regimen....

.