A young boy has a young mind full of adventures. One of the brightest in his school. Full of ambition this young boy was unfortunately diagnosed with blood cancer. He questioned his belief in God when he was unable to find a match in his family. Miraculously, he found a voluntary unrelated stem cell donor in GeneBandhu’s database. He would now be able to embark on all those adventures on his mind.

What are stem cells? Well, if you haven’t understood that already, they are a miracle. Also known as magic cells, stem cells are the fundamental building block of the human body. They live in the bone marrow, the spongy center of the bones, and are capable of performing acts of biological resurrection. They are the ones which create blood cells in our body. All blood cells start their journey as young cells called hematopoietic stem cells or peripheral blood stem cells. Once they mature, they leave their homes, the bone marrow and get to work as blood cells in the bloodstream that flows through the human body. 

The reader might wonder why someone might need a stem cell transplant. Well, in cases of blood disorders the spongy bone marrow often gets destroyed due to disease, chemotherapy or even radiation. In such a case, the stem cells are lost and the body starts to disintegrate having lost its fundamental unit. Stem Cell Transplants are used to give back Stem Cells in such a scenario. There are three types of stem cell transplants depending on the source of these stem cells:

1. Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT)
2. Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Transplant
3. Cord Blood Transplant

Stem Cell Donation can be categorized into 3 categories:

• Autologous ( Application of one’s own)
• Allogenic (Application within the family/unrelated donor)
• Application monozygotic twins

The donor stem cells could come from a sibling, an unrelated matched donor or the umbilical cord which connects the baby in the womb to the mother. Earlier patients were dependent on bone marrow transplants where the donor would donate stem cells from their bone marrow. This involved a lightly painful surgical process where a needle would be used to collect the bone marrow from a bone in the pelvis under general anesthesia. The donor’s body replenishes these cells in about 4-6 weeks. Stem Cells may also be collected from the cord blood left in the placenta and the umbilical cord after the baby is born. This blood is collected and preserved until needed.

Now, with the advent of technology and advancements in science, it has become much easier to transplant stem cells. Such a transplant is known as a peripheral blood stem cell transplant where stem cells are collected from the donor’s blood.

Before the stem cell donation process, the donor is given Granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (GCSF) injection for 4 days. This is a growth – factor that increases the number of stem cells in the blood. There are no major side effects associated with stem cell transplant, reported so far. However, after administering GCSF injections, complaints of mild fever, bone pain and headaches have been recorded . These are short term side effects and vanish within a few days. 

Stem cells are harvested in a hospital equipped with the required infrastructure. Stem cells are separated from the drawn blood and the rest of the blood is put back into the donor’s body via the large vein in the arm. This process is called apheresis. The process is similar to platelet donation.

the modern world. We must understand the value of life and persevere to preserve it. GeneBandhu is a registry in Delhi, India. We work towards creating awareness about stem cell transplants and collect information about prospective donors in our database for patients. We believe that the whole world is a family and all humans must act in a spirit of brotherhood towards one another.

Manhar Dixit & Nikki Dey

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.