The bones consist of the hard outer shell, which provides the structure for the body and protects the internal tissue, known as bone marrow. There are two types of bone marrow—red and yellow—and both have important functions.
Red bone marrow is responsible for producing red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. Yellow bone marrow consists mainly of fat cells. At birth and in early childhood, most of the marrow is red. By adulthood, about half the bone marrow is red. As a person ages, more and more of the bone marrow is converted to the yellow type. Bone marrow forms around 4 percent of total body weight (around 2.6 kg in a healthy adult).
Red marrow is found primarily in flat bones—for example, the pelvis, sternum, cranium, ribs, vertebrae, etc. It is also found in the spongy material at the ends of long bones, such as the femur and humerus of the legs. Yellow marrow is found in the hollow interior of the middle portion of the long bones. In cases of severe blood loss, the body has the capability of converting yellow marrow back into red marrow in order to increase blood cell production.
Bone marrow functions
One function of bone marrow is to help the body to suppress illness. This function comes from marrow’s ability to produce white blood cells from the underdeveloped cells located inside of it. These white blood cells are crucial in the fight against foreign invaders and are the cornerstone of the adaptive immune system. They are composed primarily of T-cells and B-cells—T-cells can directly kill or isolate harmful invading cells, while B-cells produce antibodies.
The underdeveloped cells are also commonly referred to as stem cells, which play an important role because of their ability to become red blood cells or platelets. Platelets are the transparent sections of cells that aid in the clotting of blood, which is the body’s protective response against the loss of blood. Red blood cells are also essential in transporting nutrients such as oxygen through the body.
Different types of stem cells
Around the central core of the bone are the Mesenchymal stem cells. These cells have the capacity to form various cells of the body including osteoblasts (that form bones), chondrocytes (that form cartilage), myocytes (that form muscles) and other cells. Apart from this there are the endothelial stem cells that form blood vessels.
Haematopoiesis is the formation of blood cellular components. Haematopoiesis stem cells (HSCs) reside in the bone marrow and have the unique ability to give rise to all of the different mature blood cell types and tissues. An average human requires approximately one hundred billion new hematopoietic cells each day.
When self-renewing HSCs reproduce into different cellular components, at least some of their “daughter cells” remain as HSCs, so the pool of stem cells does not become depleted.
It is this ability to differentiate according to an individual’s needs, which makes stem cells, and thus the function of bone marrow, an invaluable part of healing within the body. Stem cells may also be removed and donated. This is performed by a technique called harvesting. This procedure where stem cells are removed typically from the hip area can aid in the replacement of cells damaged by certain disease processes in another individual. They are also a key component in the study of normal growth and the identification and detection of some birth defects.
What you can do to support healthy bone marrow
Bone marrow’s overall primary function is to produce new blood cells.
These flexible groups of blood cells play key functions in the body’s lymphatic system, which is an integral part of the body’s immune system. It is responsible for the removal of waste from the body as well as the delivery of necessary nutrients to different cells. The immune system is also an important killer of microorganisms that cause illnesses and diseases.
Because bone marrow’s various functions lead back to maintaining a healthy immune system, you can help support your body’s hardworking system by taking IMMUNE+++ daily. Why wait until you are ill to take IMMUNE+++ when you can help your body’s natural defenses function at their best? Read what others have experienced when taking IMMUNE+++ here.