Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cells Technologies

Celebration Ceremony of World Marrow Donor Day was held in Tehran with presence of Dr. Namaki, minister of health and medical education, Dr. Janbabaie, deputy minister of health, Dr. Hamidieh, secretary of the council for development of stem cell sciences and technologies, Dr. Shadnoush, head of transplantation and diseases management Center, Dr. Sayyad, secretary for Iranian National Stem Cell Donor Network (INSCDN) and number of donors and patients.

Dr. Hamidieh, secretary of the council for stem cell sciences and technologies and founder of INSCDN said that over the past two years, good works has been done to expand the HLA registries in Iran. The number of hematopoietic stem cell transplants in the world has reached to one million three hundred thousand, he said. Our country is also one of those countries with more than 11,000 stem cell transplants so far. It is not enough for Iran and it should reach to at least 2000 hematopoietic stem cell transplants per year and I hope that with the potentials exist in Iran we can cover hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for our neighboring countries as well.

Every year, thousands of people are diagnosed with leukemia, and every 5 minutes one patient is diagnosed with leukemia." Once, leukemia was lethal, but nowadays, it is treated with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, he said.

Referring to the costs of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, he said: The cost of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in Europe and the US is $ 500,000 to $ 1 million, and the cost of cell transferring to the country costs € 20,000. Therefore, while transplantation is possible in the country, the increase in the HLA registry centers can also save money for cells transfers. However, one of the most important benefits of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is that unlike organ transplants, most patients do not need any medication after 6 months of transplantation.