I’m a Scientist is like school science lessons meet the X Factor! School students choose which scientist gets a prize of $1000 to communicate their work.
Scientists and students talk on this website. They both break down barriers, have fun and learn. But only the students get to vote.
This zone is the Organs Zone. It has scientists studying health and disease in various parts  of our bodies. Who gets the prize? YOU decide!
Great question, jguthridge! It’s actually pretty much the same.
Blood stem cells are found in the bone marrow (which is the soft bit inside some of your large bones, like you hip bones, and the large bones of your legs).
Most often, bone marrow transplants (or blood stem cells) are used for people with leukaemia (or cancer of the blood).
There are three kinds of bone marrow transplants.
Autologous bone marrow transplant: “Auto” means “self.” Stem cells are removed from you before you receive high-dose chemotherapy or radiation treatment and stored in a freezer (cryopreservation). After high-dose chemotherapy or radiation treatments are done, your stems cells are put back in your body to add to your normal blood cells. This is called a “rescue” transplant.
Allogeneic bone marrow transplant: “Allo” means “other.” Stem cells are removed from another person, called a donor. Most times, the donor must at least partly match you genetically. Special blood tests are done to determine if a donor is a good match for you. A brother or sister is most likely to be a good match. However, sometimes parents, children, and other relatives may be good matches. Donors who are not related to you may be found through national bone marrow registries.
Umbilical cord blood transplant: Stem cells are removed from a newborn baby’s umbilical cord immediately after birth. The stem cells are stored until they are needed for a transplant. Umbilical cord blood cells are so immature, there is less of a need for matching.
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Great response Hannah!
Technically blood stem cells are not an organ but tissue- and the main difference is in the potential for the stem cells to differentiate (grow into different types of cells). Organ transplants are already determined as ‘kidney’ or ‘cornea’ or ‘liver’, bone marrow has the potential to grow into different types of blood cells as it has not completely matured.
Hope that helps!
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I think I know what your asking:
The difference between donating Bone Marrow vs. other organs is that you donate organs after you pass away, whereas you can donate BM whilst you’re still alive (as well as healthy and can recuperate of course!)
Hope that answers your question. 😀
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I donated bone marrow (blood stem cells) once. It hurt. A lot. But I was glad to do it…I knew the child that needed them and I happened to be a match.
I think the only other thing that you can donate while you’re still alive is a kidney…because you have two.
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