Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
As in the first analysis of the history of haematopoietic stem cell
transplants (Martin et al., 2008), the second analysis (Little and
Storb, 2002) attributes the origins of the first uses of regenerative
tissues in clinical medicine to the immediate post-Second World War
climate, specifically when the end of the war saw the use of nuclear
bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and demonstrated the horrific
effects of nuclear radiation. They describe how research into
surviving radiation sickness became a major incentive in the years
immediately after the end of the war (Little and Storb, 2002). More
specifically, a series of experiments on irradiated mice in the late
1940s is described as giving rise to speculation that radiation
sickness was survivable through the use of tissue transplantation
(Little and Storb, 2002).
Although no one was sure how the mice survived, it has been
surmised that it did not take long before the factors in bone marrow
were identified as central to their survival (Little and Storb, 2002).
This gives rise to the suggestion that the identification of
haematopoietic stem cells occurred before the first use of bone
marrow transplants in humans (Little and Storb, 2002). For example,
they write: 'Research showing that all haematopoietic stem cells arise
from pluripotent transplantable stem cells led to widespread
investigations into the potential for bone-marrow transplantation as
a treatment for haematological malignancies' (Little and Storb, 2002).
A number of attempts to apply this model to humans were
performed from the late 1950s through to the mid-1960s (Little and
Storb, 2002). However, as described in the second account considered
here (Martin et al., 2008), these first transplants were so unsuccessful
that most clinicians abandoned bone marrow transplants as a
treatment protocol (Little and Storb, 2002). At this point they
suggest that the mice models that had resulted in early attempts to
use bone marrow transplants in humans were responsible for a lack
of knowledge about immune response to donor tissue (Little and
Storb, 2002). That is, they argue, that because the mice studies were
based on in-bred populations then donor transplants were highly
successful because there was enough tissue compatibility between
individuals for the importance of tissue matching to go unrecognized
in the clinic (Little and Storb, 2002). It was not until further animal
