Stem cell service on show

It's not all nappies and how to stop tiny tantrums.

The Parent and Child Show at Auckland Showgrounds this weekend includes among its exhibitors Cordbank, a service that allows parents to store newborn umbilical cord blood to combat disease in later life.

Umbilical cord blood is rich in stem cells, the immature cells that develop into part of the body's immune system. According to Auckland-based Cordbank, the cells can be used to treat 45 diseases with no risk of the body rejecting them.

These illnesses, it says, include leukaemia and Hodgkin's disease.

Spokeswoman Vaulette Mathews says Cordbank has 2000 samples in minus 196C storage - at a cost of $2350 each for 18 years.

None has been put to use.