Bone Marrow Transplantation And Why It Is Needed?

We often hear about bone marrow transplantation from movies and also from our normal lives. Though we have best bone marrow transplant in India, but do we know what actually it is? This article focuses on the discussion about this topic. The best way to begin the discussion is to know what actually bone marrow is? Bone marrow is a spongy kind of tissue present inside the bones. It acts as a medium which helps in the development and storage of blood cells of the body. Stems cells inside the bone marrow are the cells which help in the development of different cells.

Now comes what is bone marrow transplantation? It is a surgery or a procedure in which the damaged stem cells of bone marrow are removed and replaced with healthy stem cells. In other words, the stems are of bone marrow replaced in bone marrow transplantation. The procedure of this transplantation includes the extraction of stem cells, filtering of those stem cells and putting them back in the donor or the recipient.

After the discussion on what is bone marrow and its transplantation. Not let’s discuss why bone marrow transplantation is actually needed. The basic goal of bone marrow transplantation is to cure and treat diseases and many types of cancer. Sometimes a healthy bone marrow gets destroyed by a disease, in that case too, a transplantation is needed. Bone marrow transplantation is needed

1. For the healthy functioning of bone marrow.
2. To have strengthened immune system, this will assist in fighting the residuals of cancer which treatments like chemotherapy, radiation therapy and hormonal therapy could not kill.
3. The high doses of radiation and chemotherapy often destroy the bone marrow, so at that time doctors suggest to replace the bone marrow through transplantation so that its normal functioning can be restored.
4. To replace the existing bone marrow with the genetically healthy bone marrow.

Now come to the types of bone marrow transplantation. There are various types of transplantation done in respect of bone marrow. They are discussed below-

• Autologous bone marrow transplant- In this, the own stem cells of the individual are used for their bone marrow transplant.
• Allogenic bone marrow transplant- In this, the stem cells are taken from the individual whose HLA gets matched with that of the patient’s.
• Haploidantical stem cell transplant- In this, the stem cells are taken from the parents because their genetic match is at least half to that of the recipient’s.
• Matched related Donors- In this, the stem cells are taken from the siblings but the condition is that their genetic match is identical to that of the recipient’s.
• Unrelated bone marrow- In this, HLA type or genetically matched stem cells are taken from the unrelated donor .
• Umbilical cord blood transplant- In this, stem cells are taken form the umbilical cord of the infants just after the delivery. These stem cells are counted, tested and freezed for the use in transplant.

These are the types of the bone marrow transplants in India. People can have a deep insight about the what bone marrow transplantation is? Why it is needed? And what are the kinds of transplantation available? from this article.