How does this relate to collecting cord blood from newborns which I've heard is total baloney for all but specific at risk instances (and even then only useful for siblings).
For bone marrow mononuclear cells or mesenchymal stem cells, the closest are phase III, such as for heart attack https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01569178 and stroke https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01716481, but there are over 500 trails using the cells for a number of age-related disease.
Many early phases have been completed and moved forward to later phases, but this takes time before approval for many good reasons. The explosion in trials does relate to their therapeutic potential, which we began demonstrating in the lab 15 years ago.
TBH, one issue is that these trials use fairly disparate cell expansion techniques, and some do not expand at all. These techniques have advanced quite a bit in just the last several years. This has lead to disparate results from seemingly similar trials. Much progress has been made on these fronts, however. It's how it works. It takes time.
Umbilical cord blood isn't baloney. However, the FDA approved uses are limited. There are, however, many trials using them for treatment of age-related disease.
Stem cell expansion continues to improve, and with it, we can get more cells from fewer without adversely affecting them in the process. As expanded cells can be cryopreserved just as freshly collected ones, it is possible that the cells we collect can be expanded to vast numbers, and then stored for many future applications.
As an example, with just one of our small aliquots, I was able to generate more MSCs in culture than I have in my body.