Introduction:

Stem cells are special type of cells which has got the ability to differentiate into many different types of cells, like muscle cell, blood cell, nerve cell, cartilage, skull cell and much more. Leukaemia is cancer of white blood cells or leucocytes. White blood cells help the body to fight against the infections. When white blood cell count increases from the normal range of number of cells, this condition is known as leukaemia. In leukaemia patient bone marrow produces abnormal white blood cells. When the number of abnormal white blood cells increases, it inhibits the normal functioning of blood.

Adult stem cells found in bone marrow can be used to treat leukaemia or blood cancer. Bone marrow is a spongy substance, which is resent in the middle of large bones. Bone marrow produces all the different types of blood cells along with the stem cells.

Bone Marrow Transplant or Stem Cell Therapy:

A bone marrow transplant is a procedure used to replace the blood cells and blood forming cells which are destroyed from chemotherapy and other forms of cancer treatment. Peripheral blood stem cell transplant is a method used to replace blood forming cells, which are destroyed by cancer treatments.

There are three types of peripheral blood stem cell transplantation and bone marrow transplantation procedures such as autologus, allogeneic and syngeneic.

Allogeneic Transplantation:

Bone marrow and peripheral blood transplantation is done using the matching donor's bone marrow. Donor can be sibling, relative or unrelated donor. Success rate of this type of transplantation mainly depends on how well the donor's bone marrow matches with the patient's HLA (human leukocyte antigen).

Autologus Transplantation:

Stem cells or bone marrow cells are extracted from patient's body and preserved in the lab. Patient then receives the high dosage of chemo therapy and radiotherapy to kill all the cancer cells. Then the patient receives his/her own bone marrow and these cells divide to form a new set of all blood cells. That is red blood cell, white blood cell and platelets are produced once the transplanted cells reach the blood stream and bone marrow. A stem cell transplant after entering into the blood stream produces both new set of blood cells along with the adult stem cells.

Syngeneic Transplantation:

Here bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cell transplantation is done using the bone marrow of the identical twin sibling. As identical twins have got the same set of genome and therefore this type of peripheral blood stem cell transplantation will not induce any type of immunological reactions and rejections. Therefore this type of bone marrow transplantation or peripheral blood stem cell transplantation is more effective in treating the leukaemia.

Advantages:

1. Peripheral blood stem cell transplantation or bone marrow transplantation can be used to treat patient with leukaemia.
2. Peripheral blood stem cell transplant can be used to study the developmental biology of human.
3. Peripheral blood stem cell transplant can be used to study cell growth and development

Disadvantages:

1. Peripheral blood stem cell transplantation or bone marrow transplantation may induce damage to organ or tissues
2. Peripheral blood stem cell transplantation or bone marrow transplantation may cause graft versus host disease
3. To perform Peripheral blood stem cell transplantation or bone marrow transplantation finding matching donor in order to reduce the risk of graft versus host disease is a very tedious task

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