title: Human long-term bone marrow culture as a prognostic factor for hematopoietic reconstitution in autologous transplantation.
abstract: Human long-term bone marrow cultures allow persistence of hematopoietic stem cells in vitro for several weeks. Abnormalities in these cultures have been observed after cell treatment for purging in vitro. In autologous transplantation trials an increase in grafting failures after purging has also been reported. These results suggest a correlation between culture behaviour and graft kinetics. We analyzed the pattern of growth in Dexter culture of the bone marrow fraction infused in 52 patients with malignant diseases and subjected to autologous transplantation. In 23 cases, bone marrow cells had previously been treated in vitro with Asta-Z 7654 (n = 7) or with monoclonal antibodies plus complement (n = 16). Some of the long-term bone marrow culture parameters seemed to correlate with grafting kinetics, mainly adherent cell layer development and persistence of committed hematopoietic progenitors (CFU-GM) in the supernatant cells. The absence of a stromal layer defined a group with very poor hematological recovery after transplantation. Nine cases were included in this group and only one patient (11%) had recovered granulocytes and platelets. However, 90% of patients whose long-term cultures displayed normal adherent cell behavior had recovered peripheral hematological values. These results suggest that long-term bone marrow cultures could be used as a prognostic factor for hematopoietic reconstitution in autologous transplantation.
authors.affiliation: Servei d'Hematologia, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gilabert
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ayats
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006412:Hematopoietic Stem Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007938:Leukemia / Q000628:therapy; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D014182:Transplantation, Autologous