User talk:Bowenap

Haematopoiesis (blood cell formation)
The specificity of the human immune cell repertoire is what allows the human body to defend itself from rapidly adapting antigen. However, this system it a hot spot for degradation upon the pathogenesis of disease, and because of the critical role that it plays in organismal defense, its degradation is often fatal to the system as a whole. Lymphomas and hematopoietic cancers to HIC, the disruption of cell homeostasis within the immune system commonly leads to disease. The specificity of one's immune cell repertoire, which allows it to recognize foreign antigen, causes further challenges in the treatment of immune disease. Identical matches between donor and recipient must be made for successful transplantation treatments, while matches are uncommon, even between first-degree relatives. Research using both hematopoietic adult stem cells and embryonic stem cells has contributed great insight into possible mechanisms and methods of treatment for many of these ailments.

In December 2004, a team of researchers led by Dr. Luc Douay at the University of Paris developed a method to produce large numbers of red blood cells. The Nature Biotechnology paper, entitled Ex vivo generation of fully mature human red blood cells, describes the process: precursor red blood cells, called hematopoietic stem cells, are grown together with stromal cells, creating an environment that mimics the conditions of bone marrow, the natural site of red blood cell growth. Erythropoietin, a growth factor, is added, coaxing the stem cells to complete terminal differentiation into red blood cells.

Further research into this technique should have potential benefits to gene therapy, blood transfusion, and topical medicine.