What is HLA matching?
Matching refers to six proteins called Human Leukocyte Antigens (HLA) that appear on surface of white blood cells and other tissues in the body. These six HLA points or loci determine tissue compatibility between a patient and a donor. Although a perfect match would be best, studies have shown that cord blood stem cells transplants are successful, even when only three of the six loci match. With cord blood, the immune cells are less mature than those in bone marrow and therefore, siblings are twice as likely to be able to use each other’s cord blood, compared to bone marrow.
