BONE MARROW IS NOT THE SPINAL CORD!

Bone marrow is a tissue where all blood cells (red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets) arise from. It is a special type of blood which resides in some of our bones, but not inside the spinal cord.

COMPATIBILITY

For transplantation, total tissue compatibility between patient and donor is needed. Compatibility occurs 1 out of 4 times within relatives (compatibility among parents and sibling is usually 50 %, and thus ineffective in the majority of cases). However, complete or almost complete compatibility among non-relatives occur just 1 out of 100.000 times, which is why a huge number of potential donors is needed. To be added to international registries for bone marrow donation, one has to be between 18 and 40 and to weight at least 50 Kg. However, donation can occur up to 55 years.

TYPIZATION

Typization consist in collecting a small sample of blood from the arm, which allow genotypization (i.e. the analysis of personal genetic characteristics involved in compatibility) and the comparison with the characteristics of patients waiting for transplantation. In case of suspected compatibility, additional tests are to be carried out.

DONATION

There are two donation modalities: either from the iliac crest (hip bones) or through a cell separator. In the second case, a centrifuge filtrates part of blood taken from an arm – after the previous treatment with growth factors, performed from 5 to 1 days before donation – in order to collect bone marrow stem cells, while the rest of the components are re-infused into the donor.

TELL – DO – DONATE