What is the difference between a bone marrow transplant and a stem cell transplant?
The difference between bone marrow and stem cell transplantation lies not so much in the actual transplant as with the method used to harvest cells for the procedure. Regardless of which method is used for harvesting, the oncologist is looking for “pluripotent stem cells,” sometimes referred to as “the mother of all cells.” Pluripotent stem cells are different from other cells found in the marrow or blood. These special cells have the ability to reproduce identical copies of itself. As a pluripotent stem cell matures, it differentiates (changes) into committed progenitor stem cells, which then differentiate into a red cell, a white cell, or a platelet. All blood cells originate from this “mother cell”. They are found in the marrow cavity as well as the circulating, peripheral blood. In the marrow, less than 1 in every 100,000 cells are pluripotent stem cells. That number is even smaller in the peripheral blood (about 1/100th of that in the marrow). Your child’s doctor may choose to har
