• Question: hi its ellie in our bones we have bone marrow right? well why do we need bone marrow? Thanks

    Asked by whjamandellie to Anil, Blanka, Cees, Emma, Mike on 3 Jul 2012. This question was also asked by whvicandanna.
    • Photo: Emma Trantham

      Emma Trantham answered on 3 Jul 2012:

      Good question Ellie 🙂

      Our bone marrow does a lot of useful things:

      – new red blood cells are made in our bone marrow
      – cells involved in our immune systems like white blood cells (have you heard of these?) are also made here

      Our bone marrow is most important to us when we are children and growing lots but it is still very important to us when we are adults.

      Does that answer your question?

Comments

  • Photo: whjamandellie

    whjamandellie commented on :

    yes it does thank you emma. i have heard of white and red blood cells. if you have little of them cant you have some sort of canser?
    thanks 🙂

    • Photo: Emma

      Emma commented on :

      That’s right. Leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow. It doesn’t result in fewer white blood cells – instead it causes really immature white blood cells to be released so the white blood cells can’t do their jobs properly. There are also types of anaemia (this isn’t cancer) that result in fewer red blood cells which means we can’t get as much oxygen around our body.