Scientists in Uganda are scheduled to perform the country’s first ever bone marrow transplant, the state mouthpiece reported on Friday.
A bone marrow transplant is done by transferring stem cells from one person to another. Stem cells can either be collected from the circulating cells in the blood (the peripheral system) or from the bone marrow.
In simple terms, the bone marrow transplant aims at replacing the patients bone marrow with healthy cells. The replacement cells can either come from the patient’s own body or from a donor.
A bone marrow transplant is also called a stem cell transplant or, more specifically, a hematopoietic stem cell transplant.
Transplantation can be used to treat certain types of cancer, such as leukemia, myeloma, and lymphoma, and other blood and immune system diseases that affect the bone marrow.
Stem cells are special cells that can make copies of themselves and change into the many different kinds of cells that your body needs.
There are several kinds of stem cells and they are found in different parts of the body at different times.
Cancer and cancer treatment can damage your hematopoietic stem cells. Hematopoietic stem cells are stem cells that turn into blood cells.
Bone marrow is soft, spongy tissue in the body that contains hematopoietic stem cells. It is found in the center of most bones. Hematopoietic stem cells are also found in the blood that is moving throughout your body.
When hematopoietic stem cells are damaged, they may not become red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. These blood cells are very important and each one has a different job.
