Getting your player ready...
NEW YORK — Workers at Japan’s troubled nuclear plant should store blood cells now in case they need them later as treatment for radiation overdose, some Japanese experts suggest. High doses of radiation can destroy the bloodmaking cells of the bone marrow. It’s a potentially fatal outcome that can be treated with transplants of blood stem cells, but the harvesting process is time-consuming, and compatible donors can be hard to find.
Once their stem cells were stored, any workers who later got exposed to a large radiation dose could get infusions of their own cells. The idea was discussed in a letter published online Thursday by the journal Lancet. The Associated Press
