Cord blood (CB) is blood that is taken from the umbilical cord and placenta of healthy newborn babies after childbirth. The cord blood collected from a newborn baby is called a cord blood unit. Cord blood units are stored frozen (cryopreserved) in public cord blood banks. Approximately 10,000 cord blood transplants have been performed in children and adults for blood cancers and other blood diseases in the world. Cord blood units that meet all FDA requirements can be licensed.

This research study is for pregnant women who have either Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis.

This research study is for men and women who are of African American descent and who:

• Have Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)
• Have a family member with IBD
• Do not have IBD or a family member with IBD (for comparison)

The purpose of the study is to find out why inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis) occurs in individuals and families of African-American descent. The research is being done because the characteristics of IBD in the African-American population have not been well documented.