The Nikon MicroscopyU confocal microscopy image gallery was created with a PCM-2000 confocal scanning system interfaced to a Nikon Eclipse E600 upright microscope. Images were recorded in successive z-axis serial sections with C-Imaging Systems software with excitation illumination provided by an argon-ion and/or a helium-neon laser.

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Literally the lifeline between the developing fetus and mother, the umbilical cord is a long, flexible structure consisting of two arteries and one vein surrounded by a gelatinous matrix. The placenta, which connects the mother to the umbilical cord, is an organ that develops in her uterus during pregnancy, which provides nutrients and oxygenated blood for the fetus and eliminates its waste products.

At birth, the umbilical cord is tied off and clamped to prevent the mother and child from bleeding to death. It is then cut at the child's end where the remaining stump soon heals. The baby's lungs, liver, kidneys, and other organs then take over functions performed by the umbilical cord, placenta and mother. The remaining cord is used to pull the placenta, more commonly known as the "afterbirth" because it is delivered after the baby in a vaginal birth, from the mother's womb.

Sometimes this lifeline can become a life threat, particularly if the developing child gets entangled in an out-of-place umbilical cord (prolapsed) and it either threatens to strangle the fetus or its nutrition, blood supply and waste removal are cut off. In these cases, artificial birth via Cesarean section is often the only realistic option for the survival of both mother and child. Using advances in modern medicine, the flows and functions of the umbilical cord may be monitored during a pregnant woman's term.

The answer to the great debate between "innies" and "outies," when referring to belly buttons, is answered when we examine the umbilical cord and human birth. The navel or belly button is actually the scar that remains after the umbilical cord stump dries and falls off during a baby's first five weeks of life. What remains is what you get. For some babies, a little ball of skin protrudes at the stump and is called an "outey." For others, there is no extra skin, but rather an indention marks where the umbilical cord used to be; the "inney."

Recent discoveries about the blood contained in a baby's umbilical cord (it is a rich source of stem cells) may have provided an ethically sound treatment and launched a new, multi-million dollar biotechnology industry based on cryogenics that is competing with bone marrow storage and transplants. The idea of possibly reversing spinal paralyses or brain injuries or providing real cures for people suffering from strokes (using something that was routinely thrown away in hospital bio-medical waste containers) is quite a revelation. Expecting parents now need to decide if they want to bank their baby's umbilical cord and blood for possible future need for the baby (or someone else in the family) or if they are willing to donate it to a public umbilical cord blood bank for the benefit of others suffering immune, blood, cancer, neural, and other disease and genetic disorders. There even appears to be an open market for purchasing the discarded umbilical cord, placental material and blood after birthing based on Internet advertisements.

Cord blood stem cells are classified as "naive"; that is, they don't know "self" or in other words, the immune system has not developed enough for recognition, even more so than bone marrow stem cells. This makes sense, because it takes between six and nine months following birth for a baby's immune system to fully develop. The result is even less rejection of tissue for transplant or graft using umbilical cord blood stem cells than with bone marrow transplants.