What is bone marrow?
Bone marrow is a soft spongy tissue that lies within the
bones. It is the manufacturing site for red blood cells. It is the site where
hematopoietic cells are produced. Hematopoietic cells include red blood cells,
white blood cells, platelets, and myelocytes. Bone marrow is located in the
pelvis bone, sternum or chest bone, and thigh bone.
Bone marrow contains stem cells that are primitive in
nature. Stem cells are capable of turning into any cell in the body. As per the
body’s requirement, a stem cell can differentiate to form the platelets, red
blood cells or the white blood cells. Bone marrow also contains supporting
fibrous tissues apart from stem cells.
Types of bone marrow
disease
Bone marrow disease is an abnormal condition where the body
is not able to produce blood cells that are essential for the body. The three
types of bone marrow diseases are:
1. Aplastic Anemia
Aplastic Anemia is a bone marrow disease where the bone
marrow stops producing blood cells. Due to this the body’s need for blood cells
is not restored.
2. Paroxysmal
Nocturnal Hemoglobinuria
This is a rare form bone marrow disease where the red blood
cells break down. Usually, healthy red blood cells have a protein shield. This
protein shield protects them from an attack by the own immune system. In
paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, the protein shield is missing, and the red
cells break down.
This type of bone marrow disease is a failure of the bone
marrow to produce healthy platelets, red blood cells, and white blood cells.
The bone marrow produces immature and underdeveloped cells that are abnormal in
size and shape. This condition is commonly referred as bone marrow cancer or
blood cancer.
Symptoms of bone
marrow diseases
1. Pain: This
is one the most common symptom of bone marrow diseases. The typical symptoms
are headaches, bone pain and joint
pain.
2. Swelling:
Sometimes, bone marrow diseases lead to the swelling of internal organs. The
liver, spleen and kidneys become enlarged when the bone marrow disease occurs.
The bone marrow disease damages the red blood cells leading to infection and swollen
glands
3. Anemia:
The first symptom of bone marrow disease is anemia. When the red blood cell
count drops down, a person can get anemia. This happens as the oxygen levels
come down in the body. Fatigue
and weakness accompanies anemia in people suffering from bone marrow disease.
4. Chromosomal
changes: When people having bone marrow diseases are tested, gene
and chromosomal changes pop up. Leukemia
results in some parts of the chromosomes moving to other chromosomes.
Bone marrow tests and
procedure
Bone marrow tests
are usually per performed to diagnose lymphomas, to check recovery status after
treatment, to check if the bone marrow is functioning properly and diagnosing
if lymphomas have spread to other parts of the body.
The bone marrow test is typically a biopsy procedure that
takes around 60 minutes. The patient will be asked to lie down on the side or
the back depending on the location of bone marrow. A small sample of the solid bone tissue is
taken out and sent to the lab for testing. This is commonly called the bone marrow biopsy
test.
Bone marrow aspirate is also performed as a diagnostic
procedure where the liquid present in the bone marrow space is aspirated and
sent to a lab for testing.
Bone marrow
treatment- Options and methods
Bone marrow diseases affect the ability of bone marrow to
produce healthy blood cells. In such cases, a bone marrow transplant is considered to be the best option. A bone marrow transplant procedure
involves the replacement of destroyed and damaged bone marrow with healthy and
functioning bone
marrow cells. There are three types of bone marrow transplants which are:
1} Umbilical cord
blood transplant: Stem cells are removed from newborn
baby’s umbilical cord and frozen until needed for transplant. These stem cells
are very immature and are perfect for operation.
2} Autologous bone
marrow transplant: In this bone marrow transplant procedure, stem cells are removed before
radiation and chemotherapy. Stem cells are frozen and stored until chemotherapy
and radiation therapy are over. Later they are put back into the body to make
healthy blood cells.
3} Allogeneic bone
marrow transplant: This bone marrow transplant procedure involves removing stem cells from
a donor who matches the patient’s genes.
Bone
marrow transplants if success can completely cure the
bone marrow disease. The recovery is based on the age, type of bone marrow
disease and the complications involved. The patient can resume his normal day
to day activities after recovery.
