BACKGROUND: Human umbilical cord blood contains a large number of stem cells that are capable of differentiating into hematopoietic, epithelial, endothelial and neural tissues both in vitro and in vivo. Thus, human umbilical cord blood has a therapeutic potential to a wide variety of diseases. OBJECTIVE: To summarize the clinical application of human umbilical cord blood cells in the treatment of non-hematopoietic diseases. METHODS: A computer-based retrieval of PubMed and CNKI databases was performed in order to search relevant articles published from 2001 till now, using the keywords of “umbilical cord stem cells, umbilical cord blood mesenchymal stem cells, umbilical cord blood” in English and Chinese, respectively. After removal of repetitive or irrelevant articles, 64 articles were finally reviewed. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The clinical research of umbilical cord blood stem cells involves many fields such as the circulatory system, endocrine system and nervous system, in most of which good experimental results have been achieved. Findings from in-depth basic and clinical studies on biological and immunological characteristics of cord blood indicate an extensive application of umbilical cord blood stem cells that will be a new therapeutic choice for patients.