Source of Stem Cells
Bone Marrow
This is the traditional way of obtaining HSCs (a “bone marrow transplant”).
Mostly marrow grafts are used for allogeneic transplants, but it is also possible to harvest a person’s own bone marrow for an autologous transplant.
The donor is brought to the operating room and under general anesthesia a number of bone marrow aspirates are performed from the posterior iliac spines (over 100 aspirations are often done for one harvest).
Along with bone marrow containing the HSCs, a number of more mature hematopoietic progenitor cells (including megakaryocytes, granulocyte precursors, etc) and mature blood cells (such as red cells, lymphocytes) are also harvested and may be transplanted.
A bone marrow harvest is being performed in the operating room by aspirating multiple times from the posterior iliac spine while the donor is under general anesthesia:
Link:
You Tube Video of procedure (it is possible to skip the advert)
