Collection of Bone Marrow Aspirate From Normal Volunteers

Description

Bone marrow is soft tissue found inside the large bones of the body. Bone marrow produces red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets that are eventually released into the blood stream. These three cell types are considered mature cells (adult cells) and they come from a progenitor cell that lives in the bone marrow. This study is designed to provide bone marrow aspirate and blood cells for research studies by basic investigators within NIA. Volunteers are screened by a health history questionnaire, a physical examination by the principal investigator, and blood tests to detect any obvious blood diseases, or bleeding or immune disorders. A bone marrow aspirate procedure is performed using a needle inserted into the hip bone to withdraw a small amount of fluid from the bone marrow for studies. NIA Researchers will use these samples for in vitro research only. In other words, these cells are never given back to a human. We will not share samples or data with researchers outside NIH.

The study population consists of healthy males and females aged 18 years and older. Study subjects are anticipated to be non-patient community volunteers. Individuals will not be excluded based on gender, race, or ethnicity. The number of subjects to be enrolled will be 2000. This will allow us to try and maintain 200 active participants in this protocol. Volunteers are screened initially and once every 2 years while on-study by a health history questionnaire and laboratory testing. Although participants may undergo a bone marrow aspirate procedure every 56 days in clinical practice, it is our plan to collect longitudinal data and obtain one sample once every other year.

We will collect bone marrow aspirate samples for distribution to NIA research investigators for their studies of the aging process in progenitor cells. We will be performing bone marrow aspirate collections of 1-5 samples every other week. We will need to maintain an active volunteer pool of approximately 200 active volunteers.