The blood contains specialized cell types--white blood cells that help ward off infection, red blood cells that carry oxygen to tissues throughout the body and platelets that control blood thickness and clotting. Each of these blood cells originates from stem cells within bone marrow. Bone marrow cells continually proliferate, with daughter cells maturing into specific blood cell types, depending on the needs of the body. Low white blood cell and platelet counts can lead to a number of harmful conditions and may indicate an underlying disorder.
Bone Marrow Infections
One possible cause of low white blood cell and platelet counts is an infection of the bone marrow. Cells within the bone marrow may become infected with viruses, disrupting normal bone marrow functioning. As a result, bone marrow cannot divide properly and cannot give rise to maturing daughter cells, which lowers the rate of new white blood cell and platelet formation. Lab Tests Online says that infection with the human papilloma virus, or HPV, can affect the bone marrow and blood cell counts.
Cancer Chemotherapy
In some cases, patients may develop abnormally low white blood cell and platelet counts due to medications such as those used in cancer chemotherapy. Chemo drugs typically target any continually proliferating cells in the body. While they are an effective cancer treatment, these drugs also harm the proliferating bone marrow cells needed to give rise to new white blood cells and platelets. The drugs may prevent the bone marrow cells from proliferating or may cause DNA damage that leads to bone marrow cell death. CancerHelp UK says that these effects are temporary and will subside after chemo treatment, and that patients with dangerously low blood cell counts may receive drug therapy to increase blood cell production.
Hypersplenism
Each blood cell in the body has a natural lifespan, with old blood cells traveling to the spleen for destruction and digestion. If the spleen becomes abnormally overactive, such as in hypersplenism, it may begin to destroy white blood cells and platelets prematurely, decreasing the overall levels of these cells in the bloodstream. Medline Plus says that patients with hypersplenism may also notice a premature feeling of fullness after eating and stomach pain associated with an enlarged spleen. In some cases, the treatment for hypersplenism may require a complete surgical removal of the spleen to restore normal blood cell levels.
