Risk for the donor | Donation of stem cells

Risk for the donor

Despite partially trivializing media advertising, some risks should be considered when donating stem cells. Bone marrow aspiration is a surgical procedure. Allergic reactions to the anaesthetic can occur, and there can be severe bleeding when the bone marrow is punctured in the iliac crest.

Irritation or injury of nerve tracts may occur during the procedure. During and after the operation, infection is a dreaded complication that must be avoided at all costs. In addition, the wound from which the bone marrow and the stem cells preserved in it were punctured may have problems with wound healing, which must be treated further.

In medicinal stem cell procurement, the potential donor is administered a drug that is intended to dissolve stem cells from the bone marrow and flush them into the peripheral blood. This can lead to allergic reactions to the drug. Probably the most decisive risk in drug stem cell procurement is the still unclear study situation regarding the long-term consequences. Although the studies to date have shown no correlation between the drug-assisted stem cell flushing and the occurrence of leukemia, the lack of long-term observation means that no conclusive assessment is yet possible.

Risk for the recipient

Before the recipient can have the stem cells transfused, it is urgently necessary to switch off his or her immune system in order to avoid a rejection reaction against the foreign stem cells.The immune system is almost completely eliminated by chemotherapy and radiation. This carries the great danger of infection, to which the body of the recipient is now very susceptible. For this reason, he is strictly isolated in hospital under regular blood tests.

Nevertheless, there is still the risk of infection and it is a great risk. Even though the immune system is switched off, there is also the additional risk of a rejection reaction to the infused stem cells, which would have strong health consequences for the patient’s body and would have to be treated with strong medication. In very extreme cases, the recipient may die due to extreme rejection reactions of the body. If the response to the new stem cells is good, the patient must remain in isolation for several days until his immune system is restored and functions normally.