Haematopoietic damage persists 1 year after autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation.
In the present study we have used cell culture assays in order to assess the damage in the haematopoietic system 1 year after peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT), and to establish at what level, haematopoietic progenitor cells (HPC) or stroma, this damage occurs. Thirty-one patients, nine breast cancer (BC), 17 non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and five Hodgkin disease (HD), who had received autologous PBSCT were included. Forty-eight normal subjects who had given informed consent were used as controls. Results were also compared with a matched group of patients (25 cases) prior to PBSCT. Progenitor cells were analysed using CFU-GM and plastic adherent delta (Pdelta) assays. Long-term bone marrow cultures (LTBMC) in one and two stages were established. One year after transplant both the number of committed progenitor cells and the CFU-GM production in LTBMC were significantly reduced in the three groups of patients when compared with controls (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01). Two-stage LTBMC experiments showed that the impairment in CFU-GM production was due to damage in both patients' stroma and haematopoietic progenitor cells (HPC). All patients, except those with HD, showed a decreased stromal layer confluence (P < 0.05), with significant differences in cell composition as compared to normal bone marrow (P = 0.001). When all these variables were compared with pretransplant results, we observed that stroma formation was significantly lower after PBSCT (P < 0.05), while the number of progenitor cells analysed by the Pdelta assay was significantly increased (P < 0.05). We can conclude that even 1 year after PBSCT, both the committed HPC and BM stroma remain damaged.
del Cañizo
C
C
Servicio y Cátedra de Hematología, Hospital Universitario y Universidad de Salamanca, Spain.
Lopez
N
N
Caballero
D
D
Fernandez
E
E
Brufau
A
A
Vazquez
L
L
Mateos
V
V
Gutierrez
N
N
San Miguel
J F
JF
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy*; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques; D005260:Female; D006410:Hematopoiesis; D018380:Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation; D006412:Hematopoietic Stem Cells / Q000473:pathology; D006689:Hodgkin Disease / Q000097:blood / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008228:Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin / Q000097:blood / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017154:Stromal Cells / Q000473:pathology; D013997:Time Factors; D014182:Transplantation, Autologous