I don't understand the "especially young men" part, can somebody explain?

Using older donor haematopoietic stem cells increases the risk of graft-versus-host disease where instead of the host rejecting the organ, the transplant rejects the host.

As for using non-sex matched HSC...?? Other than making it easier to check for engraftment, I'm not sure about that one.

So, is this a "next time I'm at the doctor, ask them to do a marrow check" kind of thing? Or do I specifically go to a clinic and get registered? Most bloodwork I've seen costs a couple hundred dollars...

--Dan

... and Major/Minor histocompatibility testing (which should be crucial here) costs far more than 'bloodwork.' You won't need to give marrow, tough (painful, most-of-a-day proceedure; maybe another reason for young donors - they recover faster) to be MHC/MiHC tested.

I wonder if the Red Cross is doing this type of testing for people who donate blood.

Red cross is primarily interested in red blood cells and/or plasma, neither of which are involved in rejection. White blood cells are sometimes depleted (so they don't start attacking the blood recipient) from the blood for use in transfusion, so I AFAIK Mi/MHC typing isn't standard proceedure. IIRC, a Mi/MHC typing can cost upwards of $1k CDN.

http://www.giftoflife.org

This group -- although oriented towards Jews of Ashkenazi descent -- will send you a cotton swab testing kit via the mail, test you, and register you as a willing marrow/stem cell donor. It is not free -- the cost of the kit is $150 -- but the donation is tax deductable.

Another good site is the National Marrow Donor Program:

http://www.marrow.org

Typically, you can get yourself tested at your local blood bank. Fees vary. For instance, since minorities and people of color are way under represented in the Marrow registry, in most cases, the testing is free or subsidized by grants.

Maybe men have more marrow?

It's simple - she's sexually attractive, and young men are more likely to be sexually frustrated enough to donate marrow in the hope that she'll so grateful that she fucks them. Why else would they have a whole gallery of pictures of her looking winsome? Why is she front (web)page news when tens of thousands of patients in similar circumstances aren't?

Don't get me wrong - this isn't criticism. It's a clever, and potentially life-saving, angle.

 Before you judge me, I registered as a bone marrow donor at university. Sadly, my lucky number hasn't come up yet.

People are more likely to do things for other people, not for faceless causes. While it is true that, ultimately, all other people are potential sources of orgasm, the degree to which you've utterly missed the point exceeds my ability to measure.

I suppose if I needed a bone marrow transplant I'd post pictures of Jessica Alba or something. I'm registered, but they haven't called me for a while. I started to donate for one person, but I think they passed away before they needed me.