Evaluation of Mixed Chimerism in Bone Marrow Transplantation Program in Croatia

• Published in: Transplantation proceedings Vol. 37; no. 2; pp. 1388 - 1391
• Main Authors: Grubic, Z., Stingl, K., Cecuk-Jelicic, E., Zunec, R., Serventi Seiwerth, R., Labar, B., Rajic, Lj, Brkljacic-Kerhin, V.
• Format: Journal Article Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY Elsevier Inc 01.03.2005; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Anemia, Aplastic - genetics; Anemia, Aplastic - surgery; Anesthesia. Intensive care medicine. Transfusions. Cell therapy and gene therapy; Biological and medical sciences; Bone Marrow Transplantation - immunology; Bone Marrow Transplantation - mortality; Bone marrow, stem cells transplantation. Graft versus host reaction; Child; Croatia; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Fundamental immunology; Humans; Leukemia - genetics; Leukemia - surgery; Lymphoma - genetics; Lymphoma - surgery; Male; Medical sciences; Microsatellite Repeats; Middle Aged; Myelodysplastic Syndromes - genetics; Myelodysplastic Syndromes - surgery; Polymerase Chain Reaction; Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid - genetics; Surgery (general aspects). Transplantations, organ and tissue grafts. Graft diseases; Survival Analysis; Tissue, organ and graft immunology; Transfusions. Complications. Transfusion reactions. Cell and gene therapy; Transplantation Chimera - immunology; Treatment Outcome; Europe; Croatia; Evaluation; Program; Stem cell; Hematopoietic cell; Homograft; Bone marrow transplantation; Transplantation; Medicine; Treatment; Mixed; Surgery; Bone marrow; Chimerism
• ISSN: 0041-1345; 1873-2623
• DOI: 10.1016/j.transproceed.2005.01.022

In this study we monitored mixed chimerism in 36 patients with various hematologic disorders. All of them underwent a classic conditioning regimen, 31 patients for related bone marrow transplantation (BMT) and 5 patients for unrelated BMT. DNA was isolated from peripheral blood, and samples were polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplified for 5 short tandem repeat (STR) loci (TH01, VWA31, FES/FPS, F13A01, and SE33) and for one variable number of tandem repeats locus (D1S80). Samples were run on a 6% polyacrylamide gel in an automated ALFexpress sequencer. In all 36 donor-recipient pairs we found differences for at least two STR loci. In most cases the difference was observed for SE33 and D1S80 loci. Mixed chimerism (MC) was detected in 18 patients: 4 with unrelated BMT and 14 with related sibling donors. In 11 patients MC was detected in the early period after BMT, but was soon followed by full donor chimerism (FDC) in peripheral blood. In 5 cases patients MC appearing after FDC was established, and was predictive for the relapse. One patient showed alternating MC and FDC, but at the end showed only recipient cells and graft rejection. In conclusion, the PCR-STR analysis is a highly informative, fast, and simple screening method for monitoring chimerism in a BMT program.