At about 5:30 pm on January 4, staff members holding a blood collection box from Taiwan Tzu Chi Bone Marrow Bank got off the bus at Taixin Hospital in Dongguan. They handed over 3 copies of hematopoietic stem cells to the doctor. These stem cells were from Taiwanese compatriots were injected into three children from mainland China that night. This is also the first time that Dongguan has carried out unrelated hematopoietic stem cell transplantation from Taiwan.
The three children who received the transplant all suffered from thalassemia major. Among them, the oldest child was 15 years old and was diagnosed with the disease 3 months after he was born. The disease lasted for more than 14 years; the youngest child was only 6 years old and was born The disease was discovered within a few months, and the disease lasted for more than 5 years.
According to Liu Huaying, their doctor in charge, Guangdong is an area with a high incidence of thalassemia. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is currently the only effective method to cure severe thalassemia. However, it requires that the bone marrow matching must be completely consistent, otherwise it will be very easy to cause rejection. About three-quarters of the patients cannot find a suitable bone marrow donor and must rely on regular blood transfusions and iron removal to stay alive.
The older the child, the lower the success rate of transplantation. Professor Li Chunfu of the Southern Chunfu (Children's) Institute of Hematology, who was responsible for the transplant, said that due to long-term blood transfusion and iron removal, iron deposition may occur in the body of the child, and long-term Blood transfusion can also have an impact on the liver, heart and immune system. Therefore, doctors have made a lot of efforts to help children find suitable bone marrow as soon as possible.
Since no suitable bone marrow was found in mainland China, Li Chunfu's team then went to Taiwan's Tzu Chi Bone Marrow Bank to search and found three fully compatible donors. The three Taiwanese compatriots all agreed to donate bone marrow hematopoietic stem cells .
On January 3 this year, Li Chunfu's team went to Taipei. On the afternoon of that day, three donors underwent hematopoietic stem cell collection at Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital and Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital.
The collection process of hematopoietic stem cells is not as simple as blood donation. It requires injecting mobilizing agents several days in advance to mobilize the hematopoietic stem cells into the peripheral blood. The blood is drained into the blood cell separator through venipuncture of the elbow and centrifugation. The hematopoietic stem cells are separated and all remaining blood components are returned to the donor. The entire process takes 4 to 6 hours.
Professor Li Chunfu said that that night, hematopoietic stem cells had been injected into the three children respectively, and more than 20 days of follow-up treatment would be needed.
It is understood that Taiwan’s Tzu Chi bone marrow stem cell center has a bank capacity of nearly 430,000 people and has completed more than 5,000 hematopoietic stem cell donations, of which more than 2,000 were donated to mainland China. (Reporters Li Guang and Shen Hailin)
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