Biocell Center is the first company in the world to cryo-preserve stem cells collected from amniotic fluid and chorionic villi. It is possible to collect stem cells both during pregnancy and at birth, from the placenta that is expelled during the delivery.

Placenta at birth
Chorionic villi that are contained in the placenta can be extracted after the delivery, without harming either the baby or the mother. The entire placenta is ejected and, instead of being discarded as it would usually happen, collected at birth in the designed sterile kit provided by Biocell Center. It will be then processed by our operators in our labs and cryo-preserved.

During pregnancy
During pregnancy it is possible to collect stem cells from amniotic fluid and chorionic villi for those patients that for diagnostic reasons decided already to undergo amniocentesis or CVS. In fact, cryopreservation of amniotic fluid and chorionic villi brings no changes to standard amniocentesis and CVS procedures: in case of amniocentesis are cryopreserved the first 3 ml of fluid that are usually discarded, while in case of CVS just few milligrams are sent to cryopreservation.
All gynecologists operating a standard amniocentesis or CVS procedure can collect amniotic fluid and chorionic villi for preservation, as there is no change in procedure.

Other Service at birth
It is possible to preserve stem cells from amniotic fluid and chorionic villi also when pregnancy is getting close to the end or at the moment of delivery.
In fact, amniotic stem cells can be collected after a late amniocentesis (35th week), or performing an amniocentesis on purpose few days before delivery. Moreover is it possible to collect amniotic fluid in case of cesarean birth, in which case the gynecologist can pull out some amniotic fluid from the amniotic sac.
Chorionic Villi contained in the placenta can be collected directly by the doctor, the obstetrician or even by the father of the baby, simply through the dissection of a sample of placenta once the baby has been delivered.

Prof. Giuseppe Simoni, former head of Medical Genetics at the University of Milan and now Scientific Director of Biocell Center, has overseen this long process of scientific research.

“Our objective – explains Professor Giuseppe Simoni – is to preserve stem cells with high therapeutic potential, which are normally discarded. After researches and studies lasted many years, we have demonstrated that small quantitative of amniotic fluid and chorionic villi are rich of multipotent stem cells, able to differentiate in several cell lines and tissues.”