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Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Not being a bone marrow donor

I waffled on whether to post this or not, because I try to keep this a pretty upbeat and positive thing, but when I found out that I cannot be a bone marrow donor I was sort of shocked. I read that persons with autoimmune diseases cannot be donors, but I still thought that for some reason that didn't mean me, well until I read the B.C. guidelines.

I feel really lucky to be relatively healthy and I often just say "oh I cannot eat gluten" and call it a day. That said, this 1997 article started me thinking... if the antibodies that attack the gluten and other human tissue in the body are made in the bone marrow - and this is transferable to another human via a bone marrow transplant - is the bone marrow the key to figuring out what is going on?

I wonder if it is ALL bone marrow, or only some in certain parts of the body. Would radiation therapy alter the bone marrow and cause it to stop making the antibodies? I also wonder what persons with celiac diseases' bone marrow looks like compared to others. Are there other wacky things going on in there?

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