The China Bone Marrow Bank, which keeps more than 350,000 samples of bone marrow, is planning to enhance its stock to 500,000 samples this year, according to sources with the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC).

As the world's largest marrow bank for people of Chinese ancestry, the bank will collect 140,000 samples of HLA, a kind of antigen of the white blood cells.

Fang Nanting, deputy director of the RCSC Guangxi Branch, said the expansion of the bank's stock would create greater chances of marrow matches around the world. The rate of finding a match is aslow as one in every 100,000.

Over the past year, 330 donors and recipients were matched from samples at the marrow bank. The recipients were mainly from China but also included two from the United States and one each from Singapore and Hong Kong.

(Xinhua News Agency February 24, 2006)