Can Kids Give Their Parents Stem Cells?

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has established five criteria for children who are medically appropriate potential donors to ethically serve as hematopoietic stem cell donors. These criteria include:

1. Your relative’s medical team may have already asked you to donate, or you might be just doing some research.
2. During a stem cell transplant, new healthy stem cells will be put into your brother’s or sister’s bloodstream and attach to their bone marrow (called engraftment).
3. Innovations in pediatric blood stem cell transplantation mean parents can now serve as donors for children without fully matched donors. This advance has allowed for allogeneic transplants, where the patient receives stem cells from a family member or unrelated donor who shares the same group of proteins.
4. Stem cells are collected from your child by a needle placed into the soft center of the bone. Most sites used for bone marrow harvesting are in the hip bones because they have a specialized area for collecting stem cells.
5. If you are not a match, you cannot donate stem cells or bone marrow to your relative. However, it is sometimes possible to get a match from someone outside of the family through a “match” process.

The AAP holds that minors can ethically serve as stem cell donors when specific criteria are fulfilled. Even teens can register to donate stem cells, and T cell depleted bone marrow stem cells from a parent, sibling, or other close relative may be considered for children who do not have an HLA-matched related or unmatched donor.

A parent is usually only a 50-match, so traditionally not always seen as being ideal donors, although by chance some parents may be a better match.

Is stem cell donation painful?

Stem cell collection involves connecting veins in each arm to a cell separator machine, removing blood from one arm and passing it through a filter before returning it to the body through the other arm. This procedure is painless and takes 3 to 4 hours. If not enough cells are removed, it may need to be repeated the next day. Another method is to remove around a liter of bone marrow from the hip bone using a needle and syringe, performed under general anesthesia to ensure sufficient bone marrow extraction.

Is there an age limit for stem cell donation?

Anyone between the ages of 17-55 and in general good health can register to become a blood stem cell donor. If you are 17, you can complete the registration process, but will only be added to the registry after your 18th birthday.

The upper age limit is in place to protect the safety of the donor and to provide the best possible treatment for patients. Younger people are more likely to be chosen as donors and are less likely to have health issues that could cause complications with donating. With age there is also an increase in risk from anaesthesia.

Find out more: Eligibility to register as a blood stem cell donor.

Can your child be a stem cell donor?

Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation has become the standard treatment for various diseases in children and adults, including selected hematologic malignancies, immunodeficiencies, hemoglobinopathies, bone marrow failure syndromes, and congenital metabolic disorders. Three sources of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cells are bone marrow, peripheral blood, and umbilical cord blood, each with its own benefits and risks. Children often serve as hematopoietic stem cell donors, most commonly for their siblings.

HLA-matched biological siblings are generally preferred as donors due to reduced risks of transplant-related complications. This statement discusses the ethical considerations regarding minors serving as stem cell donors, using the traditional benefit/burden calculation from both the donor and recipient perspectives. It examines the circumstances under which a minor may ethically participate as a hematopoietic stem cell donor, minimizes risks, and outlines the informed-consent process. The American Academy of Pediatrics holds that minors can ethically serve as stem cell donors when specific criteria are fulfilled.

Can I donate bone marrow to my mom?

Bone marrow transplants are vital for people in need, as they help individuals with certain diseases like aplastic anemia or non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The soft, spongy liquid tissue in the center of bones produces over 200 billion new blood cells daily. In a bone marrow transplant, stem cells from healthy bone marrow replace unhealthy bone marrow. In 2020, 20 of related donor transplants and 14 of unrelated donor transplants were completed. About 18, 000 people learn they have a bone marrow disease each year that a bone marrow transplant or other stem cell transplant could cure.

Who cannot donate stem cells?

Blood stem cell donation is restricted to individuals with certain cardiovascular conditions, such as cardiac arrhythmia, damaged vascular walls, arteriosclerosis, heart attacks, strokes, or structural heart damage. Frequent or prolonged breathlessness is also a factor that prevents donation. Patients with these conditions should contact their healthcare provider to determine if they can still become a potential blood stem cell donor. Treatment for other conditions should also be considered.

Can you donate stem cells to your dad?

Haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) employs stem cells derived from a half-matched family member, with parents serving as half-matched donors for their children and vice versa. The majority of donors provide stem cells via peripheral blood collection, with injections administered to augment the number of stem cells in the blood.

Can you get stem cells from a child?

Harvesting is the process of collecting or removing stem cells from various sources, such as bone marrow, peripheral blood, or newborn baby umbilical cord. Stem cells are typically collected during remission and recovery from other treatments. Pelvic bones are often used for autologous transplants due to their high bone marrow supply. The process involves using a general anesthetic in the operating room, with a needle inserted into the hip bone and the marrow pulled out. This process typically takes 1 to 2 hours.

Can stem cells be used for parents?

Parents and family members can use stem cells from other family members, but it’s a bit tricky. The recipient must be compatible with certain proteins called human leukocyte antigens (HLAs), which are proteins from the baby. HLA typing tests can determine if a person can safely donate bone marrow, cord blood, or organs for transplants. If the cells are too mismatched, the recipient can develop graft-versus-host disease, where donor cells attack the immunocompromised cells of the recipient. Therefore, HLA testing is crucial to ensure compatibility.

What are the side effects of donating stem cells?

Blood-forming stem cells, immature cells that grow into white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets, are used in stem cell transplants to help people recover from high doses of chemotherapy and radiation that destroy their own blood-forming stem cells. These stem cells can come from oneself or a donor, with autologous transplants coming from the donor, and allogeneic transplants coming from the donor.

The cells need to match the donor’s cells as closely as possible, and rarer cases may come from an identical twin, known as a syngeneic transplant. Common problems during anesthesia include nausea, vomiting, chills, and confusion, which usually subside within a day or two. A sore throat may also occur due to a breathing tube.

Is it painful to donate stem cells?

Bone marrow donation involves a process where the donor’s blood is collected from one arm, sent through a machine to remove stem cells, and then returned to the other arm. The process is not painful and may require a second day depending on the number of cells retrieved. In about 10% of cases, doctors may recommend a bone marrow donation requiring a surgical procedure. Donors are placed under general anesthesia and the marrow is removed from small holes drilled into their pelvic bones. The nurses make donors feel comfortable and check on them often throughout the process.

Why can’t you donate stem cells after 40?

Bone marrow ages due to the use of telomeres, which limit cell reproduction. As people age, these telomeres become depleted, causing cells to fail over time. Doctors worry that marrow from a 70-year-old donor transplanted into a 20-year-old patient may fail. The World Marrow Donor Association mandates donor registries to have an upper age limit of 60 years. Even if you graduate from the registry on your 61st birthday, you can still contribute to Gift of Life.