Singapore Cord Blood Bank services, but retain ownership over the use of their cord blood. Cord blood is the blood that circulates through the umbilical cord from the foetus to the placenta. After delivery, the placenta is almost always thrown away. Yet this humble umbilical cord has become a life saving and precious commodity, because cord blood is rich in blood stem cells. Blood stem cells are young or immature cells that can transform into other forms of essential blood cell types (pluripotent), such as red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. The use of blood stem cells has emerged as a potentially
Development of the reproductive system into the labia majora in females. There is initially a cloacal membrane, composed of ectoderm and endoderm, reaching from the umbilical cord to the tail, separating the cloaca from the exterior. After the separation of the rectum from the dorsal part of the cloaca, the ventral part of the cloacal membrane becomes the "urogenital membrane". Mesoderm extends to the midventral line for some distance behind the umbilical cord, and forms the lower part of the abdominal wall; it ends below in a prominent swelling, the cloacal tubercle, which after the separation of the rectum becomes the genital tubercle. Dorsally to