What is bone marrow?
Bone marrow is a soft fatty tissue found inside of the body’s bones – such as the sternum (middle of the chest), pelvis (hip bone), and femur (thigh bone). Fibrous tissue in the marrow supports stem cells, which are large “primitive” undifferentiated cells. As needed, the stem cells differentiate to become a particular kind of cell – a white blood cell, red blood cell, or platelet. Normally, only mature cells are released from the marrow into the blood stream. Any disease or condition that causes an abnormality in the production of any of the mature blood cells, or their immature precursors, can cause a bone marrow disorder. A variety of things can go wrong, including: • the overproduction of one type of cell; this crowds out and decreases the production of the other cell types. • production of abnormal cells that don’t mature or function properly. • cell compression caused by an overgrowth of the supporting fibrous tissue network, resulting in abnormally shaped cells and decreased num
