Epsilon December 2013 | Page 25

Well, one of the main problems facing transplant patients is that when the organ is transferred to the patient’s body, the organ still contains cells from the donor’s body. This causes the body to reject the transplanted organ because it recognizes the organ as a “foreign” substance so the body attacks it. The process is as follows:

1.The donor organ is filled with detergent to wash out the donor’s original cells from the organ. This leaves only the basic structure of the cartilage.

2.Soon after that, the stripped down organ is placed in a bioreactor where it rotates through a narrow pool of the patient’s bone marrow, which contains the stem cells.

3.About half of the organ is submerged in the bone marrow at all times.

4.After the process is complete, the organ is taken out of the bioreactor and placed back into the patient’s body.