• Question: What is bone narrow

    Asked by sciencebox to Dalya, Derek, Sarah, Tim, Tom on 19 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Dalya Soond

      Dalya Soond answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      Bone marrow is the squidgy bits inside your bones. Next time you have a piece of chicken drumstick, break off the top of the bone and have a poke around to see what it looks like.

      Bone marrow is the place where the blood cells are made….things like your red blood cells that carry oxygen around the body, platelets which make your blood clot if you have a cut, and the white blood cells that fight off infection and help heal injuries, but can cause diseases like asthma and allergies.

    • Photo: Sarah Thomas

      Sarah Thomas answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      There are two types of bone marrow: red bone marrow and yellow bone marrow. Red bone marrow produces red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets, and yellow bone marrow consists of mainly fat cells. When you are born, your bone marrow is all red and as you get older it gets converted to yellow.

      Your bone marrow contains stem cells, which are basic cells that have to ability to convert into any other type of cell. These are a really hot topic in research right now because scis believe we can use stem cells to repair permanently damaged tissue e.g. use it to cure deafness etc.

      In certain types of cancer, a bone marrow transplant is required to save the patients life. It’s generally not too bad an operation for the donor, I don’t even think they need stitches afterwards.

    • Photo: Derek McKay-Bukowski

      Derek McKay-Bukowski answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      Thanks to the biologists for their answers. I know that marrow is inside the bone, but that’s about it!

    • Photo: Tim Millar

      Tim Millar answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      The place in the body where new cells are made, blood cells, and stem cells, so its very important in keeping us well.

      The blood vessels in the marrow have a very specialised cell that allow the immune cells to leave but not come back in. The open up like a window which gives them their name “fenestrated endothelium” and close back down to keep the blood cells out again.

      When we have an infection or go to altitude, the bnone marrow goes into over drive and makes billions of new cells to get rid of the bugs or make more red cells to help us take in more oxygen.

    • Photo: Tom Crick

      Tom Crick answered on 19 Jun 2011:

      As a computer scientist, I’ve left this one to the biologists!

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