In: Anatomy and Physiology
A medical technique that could be applicable to cure sickle cell anemia
Sickle cell anemia is a condition in which, red blood cells turns into sickle shape and gets breakdown. The only medical treatment or technique available to treat sickle cell anemia is the "stem cell transplantation". It is also called as 'bone marrow transplantation'. It is a treatment which replaces damaged stem cells with healthy stem cells. Before starting this treatment, the patient will be receiving high doses of chemotherapy to prepare the body for transplantation and this process is termed as 'conditioning treatment'. After the transplantation, the infused new, healthy stem cells travels to bone marrow and starts forming new and healthy red blood cells. This process is termed as 'engraftment'. This stem cell transplantation is of two types: Autologous transplantation- which uses the patient's own stem cells, and Allogeneic transplantation- which uses stem cells from donor.
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