Bone marrow transplantation is a process that transplant the hematopoietic stem cells in bone marrow from one human body to another. Properly speaking, bone marrow transplantation is equal to hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. It is the last hope for many serious diseases related to human blood system and immune system, such as leukemia (commonly known as blood cancer) , lymphoma, aplastic anemia, thalassemia, serious radiation diseases, etc. In China, there are about 4 million patients who are waiting for bone marrow transplantation each year. In Southeast Asia, there are more patients waiting for the bone marrow donors.
To find a suitable bone marrow is not so easy. However, there are still many people joining the voluntary team of bone marrow donation. Modern Cancer Hospital Guangzhou appeals that if only you are healthy, please join us to help those in need. To know more about bone marrow transplantation and the donating procedures, get moving now.
Bone Marrow Donation = Blood Donation ! So easy for you!
Does Bone Marrow Donation Affect One’s Health?
Bone marrow donation will not affect people's health. Many people think that donating bone marrow is extracting the spinal cord. Actually, it’s absolutely a misunderstanding. What bone marrow transplantation needs is the red bone marrow in human body, which is also called hematopoietic stem cells. An adult has 3kg of hematopoietic stem cells, while only less than 10g of bone marrow stem cell from one donor is able to save the life of a leukemia patient. Therefore, it will not weaken their immune and hemopoietic ability. Bone marrow has strong regeneration ability, so that a healthy donor is able to complement the amount of donated stem cells after 10 days or so. They will not feel any discomfort. The donors of hematopoietic stem cells just need to take half a day off to finish the whole operation, without any extra rest and aftercare.
Who can be bone marrow donators?
1. National citizens who are between 18-45 years old.
2. Being in good health and without any infectious diseases that can be transmitted via blood, such as hepatitis B, hepatitis C and Aids.
Steps of Bone Marrow Donation
(This program is only available in China. Maybe it will be a little different in other countries. )
1. Registration
(1) Telephone Registration: call the local donation hotline and tell them your name, address, date of birth, etc.
(2) Mail Registration: after telephone registration, the local donation center will deliver you a brochure by post office which include how to donate hematopoietic stem cells and how to get to the donation center.
2. Blood Test
After registration, the CMDP will arrange a proper time to do the blood test(5ml). Then they will put your HLA(human leukocyte antigen) typing results into the computer database of hematopoietic stem cell donors, in order to find the matching for patients.
What is necessary to be explained here is: joining in the CMDP data bank is just to do a registration of hematopoietic stem cell donation, but not mean you need to do the donation immediately. Only if there is a match, you will need to prepare for the next step.
3. Preliminary Matching
If the HLA-AB of the donor and the recipient are the same, the CMDP will inform you to do the further blood test, that is, HLA-DR analysis test.
4. Arrange the Donation
If the HLA of the donor and the recipient are perfectly matching, the staff will introduce the detailed donation process to you and arrange a full-body check for you. If the health examination is qualified, then you can do the donation.
Extracting Bone Marrow
Bone marrow puncture is needed in the traditional bone marrow extraction, but now, we can use the more scientific and more simple method to extract bone marrow.
You will be totally awake during the donation process. The professional staffs will effectively mobilize the hematopoietic stem cells in bone marrow and other parts to release in quantity to the peripheral blood. The donation is just to draw peripheral blood from the arm veins of donors, and then to isolate hematopoietic stem cells through a special machine. The rest blood will be infused back to the donor’s body.
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