Is a 6/6 HLA match only taken from cord blood, or is it possible to get it from bone marrow?
Goldie asked:
The medical jargon got to be little much with the medical jargon got to be little much with the medical jargon got to be little much with the stem cell stuff.
The medical jargon got to be little much with the medical jargon got to be little much with the medical jargon got to be little much with the stem cell stuff.
EDIT: rereading your q, I think I misunderstood what you were saying… The answer I wrote was thinking you meant you had a cord blood unit ready that was a 6/6 match and you were wanting to know if you could use the donor’s marrow instead, or only the cord blood. Part of that answer applies, but not all of it.
If I did misunderstand you, and you are asking if a 6/6 match is ONLY possible with cord blood, no its not. If the cord blood is a 6/6 match, so is the donor’s marrow and peripheral blood. However, like I did say a min ago, they dont use cord blood because its a better match, they use it because it doesnt have to be as close of a match. For example, like I said, my transplant used cord blood that was a 6/10 match to me. If I had used marrow or peripheral blood stem cells that were only a 6/10 match, the transplant would not have engrafted. And that gets into some biology stuff that is a lil over my head, but basically it is because the cord blood cells dont have the antigens that adult cells would have. Do you know how regular blood is typed and cross matched to check not only the type of the blood, but the antigens of the blood? Its kind of the same thing, only far more complicated.
I dont know for sure, but…. 6/6 is a perfect match, so It makes sense that the person’s peripheral blood stem cells and marrow should be a 6/6 match as well. They dont really use cord blood because its a closer match than peripheral blood stem cells or marrow, but rather because it doesnt have to be as close as a match. With peripheral blood stem cells or marrow, they need it to be as close to perfect as possible, like 6/6 or 5/6. With cord blood, they can use units that arent near as close as a match. I dont know what the 6 point scale was with me, but the cord blood I used was only a 6/10 on the 10 point scale.
So, I am thinking that if the person’s cord blood is a 6/6 match, the peripheral blood stem cells and marrow from the same person should also be a match. However, unless we are talking about privatly banked cord blood, there would be no way to track down the donor. Cord blood donations remain completly anon, at least in the US. If it is literally a new born, they cant harvest a new born’s peripheral blood stem cells or marrow, so we would HAVE to be talking about cord blood that had been privatly banked so that you know who the donor is, and so that the donor is old enough to have the stem cells harvested.