First Ever Beijing Stem Cell Donor for Taiwanese Recipient

Despite any political maneuvering between China and Taiwan, it is articles like these (1, 2) that bring our minds back to the basics- which is that geopolitics aside, our genetic heritage links us and binds us eventually to a common fate.

Additionally, stem cell resources will always reside with the size and diversity of the population, hence China with more than 1.3 billion is a stem cell treasure trove for chinese people all over the world if we are able to thoroughly profile and screen the stem cells.


The article which I noted a while ago (sorry, it's a late comment, but I thought it worthwhile) reports the first time that stem cells were matched from a patients in Taiwan to donors in Beijing*. The two profiled donors were Ms. Hang from Jiangsu province and Ms. Xiaoyan from Hunan province. (click here if you'd like to know where the provinces are in relation to Beijing)

They were brought to Beijing and their stem cells were mobilized from their bone marrow to the bloodstream (you can read more on mobilization and collection here) and their stem cells collected via apheresis. Their stem cells were subsequently transported to Taiwan for the transplantation.

The second article provides a little more detail on the donors and their perceptions of stem cell harvesting and donation.

Ms. Hang who is a youthful 36 year-old is a registered blood donor who has donated blood several times in her life. Apparently, a marrow bank was established in her home province in 2003 but few people registered as donors. Ms. Hang signed up as a donor in the registry not only because her employer, Amway urged all employees to do so, but also because she saw it as "an opportunity to help others... why not do it?"

Amway's staff registration yielded 1,500 new potential donors and they report that 4 of them have already been called on as donors.

Ms. Hang's father is a doctor and said that the process of mobilizing and collecting stem cells was harmless and supported her decision to donate. The recipient was a 16 year-old girl and I hope that they collected as many stem cells as they could and that the patient has recovered.



*Taiwan has exported stem cells obtained from donor's cord blood, bone marrow and peripheral blood to patients all over the world. Cord blood stem cells obtained from a private company that facilitates the storage facility for databasing and sale, Stemcyte incur a charge of between RM 100,000 to RM 150,000 per unit (they have released in excess of 250 cord blood stem cell units). Some patients have also withdrawn 2 cord blood stem cell units to use in a double transplant when one unit is insufficient.

Malaysian patients have accessed this facility many times and have been able to find successful matches which has allowed life-changing stem cell transplantation to proceed.

Credit also goes to the Tzu Chi Taiwan Marrow Donor Registry, the third largest of its kind in the world, which has made over a hundred matches for mainland patients and patients in South East Asia.