Let’s say you’ve got a patient that needs bone marrow. I hear it’s really hard to find a match outside of the patient’s family, but it does happen.
Pretend the patient’s blood type is, say, O Positive. Would their donor HAVE to have O Positive blood too, or does that matter?
Another question: what if the patient was O positive and the donor was O negative? Would that work?
I went to the National Bone Marrow Donor Program website and found out they used HLA typing.
http://www.marrow.org/PATIENT/hla_typing.html
What I know about immunology you could fit in a thimble, but I think, from what I read on there, that HLA testing refers to markers found on White blood cells(on others, but in this case…) there’s three kinds A, B, and DR. This site though, can explain it a lot better than I can.
http://www.med.umich.edu/trans/public/hla/hla_&_you.html
-Lil
But wouldn’t blood type be a big factor?
If the bone marrow MAKES blood, then I’d think that at the very least you’d have to have the same type.
I have a friend in TX whose 2 year old has leukemia 
I’m trying to find out if there’s any chance I could be tested to see if I’m a match.
If you want to be tested for a match speak to whoever is treating the child at the moment. If they are looking for potential donors they will be the ones who will initiate the testing. Or you could always join the Bone Marrow Register.
Ahme - I am a long time volunteer at the Unrelated Bone Marrow Donor Registry here in Canada. Here’s the skinny -
Blood types don’t have to match before donation, but they will match after. If you’re A, and she’s B, and you donate to her and it takes, she’ll become B. Also, in some cases, if she has blue eyes and you have brown, her eyes can change color after donation. If she was a he and he received a donation from you, his HLA’s would always test as female, despite him still being male.
It would be almost impossible for people of asian origin to match with a person of caucasion origin, which is why big pushes are often done in asian communities - blood and bone marrow donation are less common among asian groups but they still get leukemia and aplastic anemia and what not.
If you’re in good health, and you qualify to donate blood (contact your Red Cross if you’re not sure) you could certainly get tested. If you match and donate, you’re gonna have a really, really sore ass, but you could potentially save your friend (or a stranger if you so choose).
Actually, there are three major Class l genes in the major histocompatibility complex (A, B, and C) as well as several other minor Class l genes which we don’t generally test for, and three major Class ll genes (DP, DQ, and DR); each person has two copies (which may or may not be identical) of each of these genes. A, B, and DR are the most important genes to match in a transplant, but all 6 of these HLA genes are usually taken into account when planning a bone marrow transplant - a perfect match would have all 12 gene copies (both A genes, both B genes, etc.) identical. There are also minor histocompatibility genes at other loci, which are not tested for but which can play a small role in the comaptibility of the transplant; that’s one reason a relative’s bone marrow will usually give a better result than a stranger’s with an apparently equally good HLA match - the relative’s minor histocompatibility genes are more likely to be similar to the recipient’s own.
Blood type is NOT critical in a bone marrow transplant, oddly enough; it’s perfectly possible to transplant someone with bone marrow of an “incompatible” blood type so long as the HLA match is good .
I am not trying to picky, but do you have a cite for that statement? Sounds awfully unlikely.
Nope - sorry. Only some of the literature from where I volunteer - I think it’s one of those “Hollywood” type details that recruiters throw in there to increase interest in the process.