Bone marrow transplantation is an in-depth major surgical procedure used as a life-saving process for those with many different types of illness. Simplistically speaking, the process of bone marrow transplantation is a simple matter of removing it from one donor and transplanting it into a recipient. However, there are many criteria that must be met in order to ensure a safe transplantation, and even then rejection of the cells is always of high concern.
History
Bone marrow transplantation was originally researched with bone marrow stem cells by E. Donnall Thomas. This research was of such importance and magnitude that E. Donnall Thomas was honored with a Nobel Prize for his work. The first bone marrow transplant was performed in 1968 by Robert A. Good at the University of Minnesota.
Function
Bone marrow transplantation is used as a process to supplement a patient's current bone marrow with suitable bone marrow from a donor. This process replaces the stem cells within the bones, which are responsible for blood production and immune system cellular production. Once the transplant has been made, these new donor cells begin their work just as the patient's own cells would.
Significance
Bone marrow transplantation has proved a worthy treatment in many diseases such as cancer, immune system disease and blood disorders. The development and advancement of bone marrow transplantation technology has saved countless lives and is of such a use to the medical industry that it has its own database and registry for patients of today and tomorrow.
Warning
Bone marrow transplantation is not without its risks, however. Bone marrow transplantation is essentially a tissue transplant, and as such it is subject to the possibility of Graft versus host disease where the the patient's body attempts to reject the donated tissue. Furthermore, the risk of infection is high with this procedure as the patient's bone marrow is usually destroyed via radiation treatment before his transplantation. This leads to a tabula rasa effect on his own immune system as he has lost all his previous immunities. This is often countered by vaccinations and immunosuppressive therapy.
Considerations
Bone marrow donation, unlike other organ transplantation, can be done in advance and cryogenically preserved for transplantation at a later time. Bone marrow donation is open to any healthy adult who would be generous enough to consider it. There are large deficits within certain cultural groups for adequate bone marrow supply. As such, it is a very noble and quite certainly a life-saving cause to consider donation of bone marrow for those in need.
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