Today I will be discussing on a very special topic called bone marrow failure. What is really the actual cause of this disease and the possible way which we can avoid or eliminate this disease.
At first let's begin with a short definition.
Bone marrow is soft, gelatinous tissue that fills the medullary cavities, or the centers of bones
This bone marrow serves a lot of functions in the body which includes the production of red blood cells, platelets and white blood cells.
All this components are the major factors that makes up human in terms of survival.
Just imagine a situation where an individual is suffering from bone marrow failure,what do you think that might likely happen to if such occurs.
Well, Before we go into that let us elaborate what this disease is in details.
Bone marrow like I said earlier is a soft gelatinous tissue that fills the medullary cavity. It is being divided into two types which includes red and yellow bone marrow.
The red bone marrow is also known as myeloid tissue while the yellow one is known as fatty tissue.
Bone marrow is enriched with blood vessels and capillaries and also produces about 220 billion new blood cells every single day.
Any defect in the functions of this bone marrow can amount to a serious effect in the body. This is because bone marrow is a site where hemopoiesis(blood production) takes place and is also the major site where the body gets it's immunity from.
Take for instance, the bone marrow which is govern by different hemopoietic stem cells which also varies in their regenerative capacity. Pluripotent hematopoietic stem cells which is one of them has the ability to reproduce another cell that is identical to others, this process is called hematopoiesis.
Bone marrow failure like we all know can be inherited or acquired. Inherited bone marrow failure is mainly seen in younger children while acquired is found in adults and older children.
The two different thing about this two failure is their causes. Inherited failure is caused by gene alteration but for the acquired is caused by aplastic anemia,benzene, chemotherapy and radiation.
Bone marrow failure in both adult and children can be detrimental but seems more complicated in children than adults.
This disease not only can decrease the amount of red blood cell in you but can as well affects a lot of area in the body like being immunosuppressed and otherwise.
This disease leads to bleeding of the gums,nose or even the skin which might last longer than imagine.
In acquired bone marrow failure this disease like I said is caused by a lot of things which aplastic anemia is one of them.
Aplastic anemia happens when bone marrow doesn't produce enough new blood cells throughout the body. Aplastic anemia is an acquired autoimmune disease, which occurs when the immune system mistakenly attacks and destroys healthy body tissue
In the definition above, it simply shows that aplastic anaemia can occur when our body tissues is being attached by the immune system. This in essence prevents the body from the production of new blood cells.
Secondly, exposure to some toxic chemicals such as benzene could lead to distortion of the stem cells and therefore creates a damage in the site responsible for blood production.
Radiation and some chemotherapy medication could also contribute to bone marrow failure.
When you talk about prevention of bone marrow disease you are indirectly talking about how acquired bone marrow failure can be prevented, reason being that inherited bone marrow failure are genetic.
Acquired bone marrow failure can be prevented by going away from toxic substances or chemicals which could amount to the causes of this very disease.
There are different ways whereby bone marrow disease can be treated or managed. People who have this disease mostly have decrease in the amount of red blood cells in the body.
At first, blood transfusion should be number one thing to do as people who has this disease have decrease in packed cell volume.
People with this disease can undergo bone marrow transplant to enable the body in the production of enough healthy cells.
Bone marrow failure is a disease which many of us don't know that exist. This disease is found in both adults and children.
Bone marrow transplant is considered a proper way which this disease could be treated but some may not afford what it takes to undergo this process. Because of that many choose to be transfused regularly in other to be alive.
