Umbilical Cord Blood: Reduced Intensity Transplants
A typical stem cell transplant, regardless of whether it is used umbilical cord blood or bone marrow grafting involves a system of preparation or conditioning, which is usually intense and can be fatal in some cases. This procedure prior to transplantation involves intense chemotherapy and radiation, whose goal is to destroy the diseased cells (for example, cancer cells), as well as strengthening the patient’s immune system to prevent the system person who is undergoing stem cell transplantation refuses to accept the donated cells.
A typical preparative regimen to allow for a stem cell transplant is also known as: myeloablation. Through research related to stem cells, doctors have developed a reduced intensity transplant pemit minimize potential risks that sometimes are associated with transplantation of umbilical cord blood and bone marrow. These types of transplants in which stem cells are used, sometimes known as non-myeloablative transplants or mini-transplants.
Procedure must be performed to Make a Stem Cell Transplant
The preparative regimen for stem cell transplantation using a reduced-intensity procedure aims to destroy the diseased cells as much as possible, and therefore uses low doses of chemotherapy, together – sometimes, by radiation therapy. This would weaken, rather than destroy, the patient’s immune system, preventing the body from rejecting the donated stem cells, in turn, prevents the development of the disease known under the name: Graft-versus-patient (GVHD, for its acronym in English).
Stem cells used in a reduced intensity transplant must come from a compatible donor, for example, a family member, a donor who has no kinship with the patient, or using a unit of umbilical cord blood. This procedure is considered an allogeneic transplant. The donated cells (the graft) is tasked with developing a new system intended to attack diseased cells.
Because the patient’s immune system is not destroyed, unlike what happens in a standard stem cell transplant, both the patient’s immune system and the donor’s immune system may coexist in a kind of mixed chimerism for 6 to 12 weeks after transplantation. Once that period has expired, the donor’s immune system will take over as full chimerism and begin to attack the diseased cells in a process known as graft-versus-leukemia or graft-versus-tumor.
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