Engineered bone marrow could make transplants safer.

Engineered bone marrow could make transplants safer.Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed biomimetic bone tissues that could one day provide new bone marrow for patients needing transplants. Bone marrow transplants are used to treat patients with bone marrow disease. Before a transplant, a patient is first given doses of radiation, sometimes in combination with drugs, to kill off any existing stem cells in the patient's bone marrow. This pre-treatment is meant to improve success of the transplant by clearing up space in the marrow, allowing donor cells to survive and grow without competition from the patient's own cells. But this treatment often comes with harmful side effects, such as nausea, fatigue, loss of fertility and others.more