Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cells Technologies

With the collaborative effort of Iranian National Stem Cell Donor Network (INSCDN) and Iranian Blood Transfusion Organization (IBTO), the ceremony of the World Marrow Donor Day was held on Saturday, September 17th 2016 in Tehran, Iran.

With the collaborative effort of Iranian National Stem Cell Donor Network (INSCDN) and Iranian Blood Transfusion Organization (IBTO), the ceremony of the World Marrow Donor Day was held on Saturday, September 17th 2016 in Tehran, Iran.
At the beginning of the ceremony which was attended by officials from INSCDN, including Dr. Pourfathollah (Vice president of the Iran’s National council for the development and monitoring of HLA registries and cord blood banks), Dr. Hamidieh (Secretary General of the Iran’s National council for the development and monitoring of HLA registries and cord blood banks, and Secretary General of INSCDN), Dr. Nikougoftar (Secretariat-in-Charge of INSCDN) and officials of donor centers and cord blood banks of the country, Dr. Hamidieh provided a history of the hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) in Iran and the 25 years of experience in this path. Secretary General of the INSCDN mentioned that initially in many years ago, physicians had to perform autologous HSCT and shortly later allogeneic HSCT from close relatives of the patients; however, for the majority of patients, which was about 70%, no suitable match donor could be found in their families. As a result, these patients required HSCT from unrelated donors, while due to absence of donor centers in Iran at that time, some of them needed to be sent abroad. Launching the first donor center in about 7 years ago, Iranian volunteer donors rushed to help their compatriots. But the number of donors in Iran compared with the population of the country is very low, so that from about 8000 transplants during the past 25 years, only 100 transplants were from unrelated donors and the rest were majorly from siblings or close relatives. Dr. Hamidieh expressed hope that by strengthening the INSCDN and donor centers across the country and also with the help of charities and fellow altruists; the potential to treat Iranian patients with diseases requiring HSCT will rapidly extend.
In the following, Dr. Pourfathollah happily announced that INSCDN has joined the global network of HLA registries, Bone Marrow Done Worldwide (BMDW). “We are determined to reach to more than 50,000 registered donors at the end of the eleventh government of Islamic Republic of Iran”, Pourfathollah said. He appreciated the idea of the establishment of INSCDN and noted that: “In the past, patients in need of HSCT had to find a suitable donor in person by visiting every single donor centers in the country; whereas by aggregation of donors and cord blood units’ information in the INSCDN databank, prompt online search is now available.
The ceremony continued by commending a number of stem cell donors in recent years. The event was ended up with a great performance of an Iranian traditional music band.