Bengaluru: ‘In most patients, a matching bone marrow from either a sibling, parent or relative cannot be found; therefore, one would need to search for the match from unrelated donors. The availability of unrelated bone marrow donors from South Asian population is particularly low. Hence, the need for a registry of significant size for a diversified country like ours is imminent’, opined Prof. N.R. Shetty, Vice-Chairman, Indian Red Cross Society, Karnataka Chapter.
He was speaking on the occasion of Bone Marrow Registry Drive at Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology arranged by NCC/NSS wings of NMIT in collaboration with BMCDT-Infosys Bone Marrow Registry at Bengaluru. Shetty further added that in the absence of HLA typed registry, finding a suitable match for a patient in need of a bone marrow transplant is almost impossible and very expensive.
Dr. K.M. Srinivasagowda a well known medical professional and chief of BMCDT-Infosys Bone Marrow Registry said that Donation of bone marrow does not affect the donor in anyway, but may actually save a life.
Dr. H.C. Nagaraj, Principal, NMIT actively participated in the campaign and Registry drive. Nearly 200 students aged between 18 and 20 years enrolled themselves as donors.
Bone Marrow Transplant is an often used therapy for various types of blood disorders such as leukaemia, lymphoma and other blood disorders such as aplastic anaemia or thalassemia. The therapy consists of replacing the patient’s blood stem cells that are precursors to the red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. These stem cells are produced in the marrow of the bone. Unlike the relatively simple blood group matching before blood transfusions, bone marrow transplants require matching a patient’s human leukocyte antigen (HLA) profile with those of potential donors to determine the most suitable match. The proteins (antigens) produced by the HLA genes help the body distinguish between its own cells and foreign invaders. If the HLA matching is acceptable, the bone marrow transplant would be accepted by the recipient and in the event of a mismatch, the white blood cells produced by the stem cells transplanted from the bone marrow of the donor would attack the cells in the patient’s (recipient) body.
