What are the matching steps for bone marrow transplantation

Bone marrow transplantation is a process in which a donor transplants normal bone marrow cells into a patient, which is a rather troublesome process. Bone marrow matching is also a very important step before bone marrow transplantation. Many people are not clear about how to match bone marrow transplantation. Generally speaking, the success rate will be higher if relatives match.

1. Selection of recipients and donors:

The recipient must be in suitable physical and financial condition, and the recipient of an allogeneic transplant must be compatible with the human tissue-associated antigen (HLA).

2. Collection and storage of hematopoietic stem cells:

If it is an allogeneic transplant, a donor with the same tissue compatibility antigen (HLA) matching must be found for the patient to collect stem cells; if it is an autologous transplant, the patient's own remission stem cells must be collected before pretreatment and appropriately stored in vitro.

3. Pretreatment before transplantation:

Before transplantation, the patient undergoes various examinations and undergoes pretreatment [high-dose chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy] under full environmental protection. The purpose is to eliminate malignant cells in the body or abnormal cell populations in the bone marrow, and to prepare the environment for the implantation of normal stem cells.

4. Infusion of hematopoietic stem cells:

A suspension of hematopoietic stem cells from a donor (allogeneic or autologous) is infused intravenously.

5. Prevention and treatment of complications after transplantation:

After bone marrow transplantation, prevention and treatment of complications such as graft-versus-host disease (allogeneic), infection, bleeding, interstitial pneumonia, and supportive treatment are required.

6. Note

Many people have a misunderstanding about bone marrow transplantation, thinking that bone marrow transplantation is to extract bone marrow from the bone cavity with a needle. In fact, this is not the case. Bone marrow transplantation is to extract hematopoietic stem cells from the blood through a machine through intravenous extraction and then transfuse them to patients in need. In layman's terms, the whole process is no different from regular blood transfusion.