Bone marrow transplantation is currently used to cure many life-threatening disorders, including blood cancers and a variety of autoimmune and genetic diseases.

Currently, the procedure requires that doctors kill the recipient’s own white blood cells with chemotherapy and or radiation treatments first before introducing donor bone marrow.

Now, researchers say that a study in mice may point the way to a way to avoid the side effects of doing that. Using antibodies that target proteins on certain immune cells, they were able to eliminate over 99 per cent of the host white blood cells in mice with normal immune systems.

Furthermore, they looked at whether donor white blood cells can be transplanted after the antibody treatment. They found an average of 40 to 60 per cent of donor white blood cells successfully established themselves in 24 weeks after the transplant.

The research is in Science Translational Medicine. (ABC)