Cord Blood Stem Cells Information

how umbilical cord functions?

what is the connection between mother, placenta, umbilical cord and fetus. i mean do nutrients and oxygen diffuse into the placenta through uterine wall and the placenta forms blood and pumps it into the umbilical cord directly into the fetus' artery? because the blood cannot go direct from mother into fetus, because fetus has low risk of contracting blood diseases (like aids and hep) from mother. also is stuff from umbilical cord one way, or does it also remove co2 and waste. also, seeing as a fetus is entirely oxygenated through its blood, without use of lungs, can this possibly be done with full grown humans. can a human survive without lung function through purely intervenous oxygenation?

Public Comments

1. This website has the answer you are seeking: http://www.pregnancy-info.net/Umbilical_Cord.html
2. It is done with the use of heart-lung bypass machines that are used in organ transplants, but that is not a viable long term solution. The fetus still circulates its own blood. Semioxygenated blood from the aorta enters the umbilical cord where it goes to the placenta. In the placenta oxygen diffuses into the fetal blood (which has a higher affinity for oxygen than the mother) and returns to the fetus, entering the portal system and the inferior vena cava. It then returns to the right heart with the returning deoxygenated blood, where it is shunted over to the left atrium through the foramen ovale or goes to the ventricle and into the pulmonary artery, and enters the aorta through the ductus arteriosis. The blood that continues through the pulmonary circulation comes back to the left atrium and mixes with the blood from the right atrium, and is pumped into the aorta by the left ventricle.