Currently, the only cure available for sufferers of sickle cell disease is hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). In this process, stem cells are taken from the bone marrow or blood of someone without the disease (the donor). The donor is often the sufferer’s sibling, and this is because the most successful and safest transplants are those that use stem cells that are matched for special proteins known as HLA proteins. These antigens are inherited from parents meaning that siblings are the most likely to have the same antigens as the person with SCD.
The process involves stem cells being taken from the donor, and the recipient being treated with chemotherapy or radiation therapy that destroys or significantly reduces their own bone marrow stem cells. The donor stem cells are injected into the recipient, and these cells will settle in the bone marrow, gradually replacing the original cells of the recipient. The new stem cells will create red blood cells of a normal shape and size.
At the moment, most SCD transplants are performed for children who have had severe and life threatening complications such as strokes, acute chest crises and regular pain crises. Only about 1 in 10 children with SCD have a matching donor without the disease in their family, and because of this the number of transplants being conducted is very low. A stem cell …show more content…
Professor Stuart Orkin of Harvard Medical School explains that there are two types of haemoglobin in the body; there is foetal haemoglobin whose production is normally switched off at birth and the standard adult version that takes over. However in some individuals, haemoglobin production is not switched off at birth. Those people are supplied with feotal haemoglobin throughout their lives and if they inherit sickle cell disease it protects them against the disease by creating a substance that can carry oxygen around the
The process involves stem cells being taken from the donor, and the recipient being treated with chemotherapy or radiation therapy that destroys or significantly reduces their own bone marrow stem cells. The donor stem cells are injected into the recipient, and these cells will settle in the bone marrow, gradually replacing the original cells of the recipient. The new stem cells will create red blood cells of a normal shape and size.
At the moment, most SCD transplants are performed for children who have had severe and life threatening complications such as strokes, acute chest crises and regular pain crises. Only about 1 in 10 children with SCD have a matching donor without the disease in their family, and because of this the number of transplants being conducted is very low. A stem cell …show more content…
Professor Stuart Orkin of Harvard Medical School explains that there are two types of haemoglobin in the body; there is foetal haemoglobin whose production is normally switched off at birth and the standard adult version that takes over. However in some individuals, haemoglobin production is not switched off at birth. Those people are supplied with feotal haemoglobin throughout their lives and if they inherit sickle cell disease it protects them against the disease by creating a substance that can carry oxygen around the