Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
better tissue matching of donors and recipients (Bortin, 1970) - a
prediction that turned out to be exceedingly accurate.
With such low success rates, the clinical uses of bone marrow
transplants had largely been discouraged (Martin et al., 2008). In the
1970s though further research in immunology and the practice of
tissue-matching resulted in a revival of the use of bone marrow
transplants in clinical cancer medicine (Martin et al., 2008). After
the transformation of bone marrow transplantation success rates by
the late 1970s, there was one more step in the history of bone
marrow transplantation that led to the identification of haematopoietic
stem cells (Martin et al., 2008). In the 1980s the identification of an
important surface marker found on haematopoietic stem cells saw
the success rates of bone marrow transplants increase significantly
due to even better tissue matching and led to the identification of
stem cells as separate components of bone marrow (Martin et al.,
2008). This period also saw a change in nomenclature to reflect this
new discovery: bone marrow transplantation now came to be called
haematopoietic stem cell transplantation and is routinely used in clinical
medicine for a wide variety of applications (Martin et al., 2008).
An earlier history of haematopoietic transplants shows some
variations on the previous account (Little and Storb, 2002). These
differences highlight some of the ambiguities around the way that
haematopoietic stem cells have entered into clinical practice and
how they are identified. First, the use of bone marrow in early
attempts at transplantation during the 1950s is described in this
alternate history quite specifically as the transplantation of
haematopoietic stem cells (Little and Storb, 2002). Second, they also
identify the mid-1950s as the time when haematopoietic stem cells
were established as the cause of the success of bone marrow
transplantation in mice models (Little and Storb, 2002). Third,
according to this analysis, the existence of haematopoietic stem cells
predates the application of bone marrow transplantation in humans
(Little and Storb, 2002). Fourth, they claim that the clinical failure
of bone marrow transplantation was because early knowledge about
haematopoietic stem cells was based on populations of in-bred mice
that did not require tissue matching (Little and Storb, 2002).
