The history of bone-marrow transplantation

Abstract

As it influenced so much else this century, so the atomic bomb essentially marked the beginnings of interest in bone-marrow transplantation. The first detonation of a nuclear device in New Mexico in 1945, and the subsequent effects of the atomic bomb on the populations of Hiroslaima and Nagasaki provoked great and urgent interest in the effects of irradiation. While studying the effects of lethal irradiation in mice, Jacobson (1949)’ discovered a protective effect of splenic shielding: the spleen in mice contains haemopoietic tissue. He went on to demonstrate a similar protective effect by shielding the femur (1951).2 A year later, Lorenz showed that this protection could also be conferred by intravenous bonemarrow infusion.3 At first, it was thought that the radiation protection was due to humoral elements in the syngeneic bone marrow. Over the next five years, however, a number of investigators demonstrated that, not only was the protection due to cellular elements, but that these donor cells effectively repopulated the irradiated marrow.cw.“9 An animal whose haemopoietic system was derived from another animal was termed a ‘radiation chimera’.’ In 1958, a radiation accident occurred in Vinca, Yugoslavia, and six physicists developed radiationinduced aplasia. Although one died, Mathe” described the successful infusion of allogeneic bone marrow into the remaining five, and subsequently