Donor recruitment and testing, which involves would-be donors to fill out some forms and have seven milliliters of blood drawn, has begun at a recently-launched HLA (human leukocyte antigen) coordination lab under the Jilin Branch of China Databank of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Donators, or China Bone Marrow Bank.

Jilin started preparatory work for the bone marrow bank in 2001 and has since enrolled over 4,000 would-be donors, according to Zhang Huijie, who is in charge of Changchun's central blood donation center.

Currently, patients waiting for hematopoietic stem cell transplants number more than 4 million on the Chinese mainland. Every year leukemia sufferers increase by more than 40,000. However, registered stem cell donors amount to less than 60,000 nationwide, leaving bone marrow stocks badly in need.

Hematopoietic stem cell transplant is seen as a sophisticated technology and an important means to treat hematopoietic disorders, including leukemia, aplastic anemia, severe immunologic deficiency disease, Mediterranean anemia, acute radiation sickness and lymphoma.

One of the major preconditions for hematopoietic stem cell transplants that the HLA of a patient and a donor should be matched completely. As most Chinese people now aged below 20 are single children, it is hard for them to find stem cell donors among their relatives.

It is imperative to expand the number of hematopoietic stem cell donors, as the HLA coordination ratio is low among non-siblings, Zhang said.

(Xinhua News Agency March 10, 2003)