Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation

Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation

 

What is Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation?

Stem cells are divided into types within themselves. One of them is blood stem cells called hematopoietic. Hemapoeietic cells are not the same as embryonic stem cells and cloning cells, although they are generally classified as stem cells. Hemotopoietic cells are multipotent cells that make up all blood cells and immune system cells.

 

Blood stem cells are produced in the spongy tissue called bone marrow. Back bones, hip bones, shoulder bones, ribs, chest bones and skull bones are bones with bone marrow where blood stem cells are produced. The blood passing through the bone marrow in these places collects the platelets that will participate in the circulation. hematopoietic cells are also found in peripheral blood.

A hematopoietic cell transplant is usually a transplant for cancer treatment. Transfer can be done in two different ways.

 

How to do Hematopoietic Cell Transplant?

 Cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation can be toxic treatments for bones. High doses of rays and radiations can damage stem cells and bone marrow. Therefore, stem cell transplantation is also preferred in some cancer treatments. Hematopoietic cell transplantation; It occurs by replacing the damaged bone marrow and stem cells with healthy ones after radiation and chemotherapy. Two different methods are used for this

 

Autologous transplantation: Before chemotherapy and radiation therapy are administered, the patient's own stem cells are removed and stored. After chemotherapy and radiation therapy, the separated cells are thawed and given back to the patient. In this way, all stem cells are prevented from being damaged and the patient continues his life with healthy stem cells after the treatment.

 

Allogeneic transplantation: In this transplant procedure, hematopoietic stem cells are obtained from another donor. Since genetic similarity is required for stem cell transplantation, the ideal donor is a sister or brother. If there is no suitable sibling to be a donor, unrelated people with similar genetic makeup can also be donors.