Effect of HLA class I or class II incompatibility in pediatric marrow transplantation from unrelated and related donors.
The degree of histoincompatibility that can be tolerated, and the relative importance of matching at individual HLA class I and class II locus in bone marrow transplantation (BMT) has not been established. We hypothesized that matching for HLA-DR may not be more important than matching for HLA-A or HLA-B in selection of a donor for successful BMT. We retrospectively analyzed the outcomes of 248 consecutive pediatric patients who received allogeneic BMT from related donors (RD, n = 119) or unrelated donors (URD, n = 129). HLA-A and HLA-B were serologically matched, and HLA-DRB1 were identical by DNA typing in 69% of donor-recipient pairs. Most patients (89%) had hematologic malignancies; the rest had aplastic anemia or a congenital disorder. One HLA-A antigen mismatch was associated with a decrease in survival (p = 0.003) and a delay in granulocyte engraftment (p = 0.02) in recipients of RD marrow; as well as a decrease in survival (p = 0.02) and the development of severe acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) (p = 0.03) in recipients of URD marrow. One HLA-B antigen mismatch was associated with a decrease in the survival (p = 0.05) and the development of severe GVHD (p = 0.0007) in recipients of RD marrow. One HLA-DRB1 allele mismatch was associated only with a decrease in the survival (p = 0.0003) of recipients of RD marrow. Results of this study suggest that disparity in HLA-A and HLA-B antigens may not be better tolerated than disparity in HLA-DR allele in allogeneic BMT. Further studies are warranted to confirm our results.
Leung
W H
WH
Department of Hematology-Oncology, Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN 38105, USA. wing.leung@stjude.org
Turner
V
V
Richardson
S L
SL
Benaim
E
E
Hale
G
G
Horwitz
E M
EM
Woodard
P
P
Bowman
L C
LC
D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001787:Blood Group Incompatibility / Q000276:immunology*; D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation / Q000276:immunology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006086:Graft vs Host Disease / Q000276:immunology; D015234:HLA-A Antigens / Q000276:immunology*; D015235:HLA-B Antigens / Q000276:immunology*; D006684:HLA-DR Antigens / Q000276:immunology*; D059811:HLA-DRB1 Chains; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D010372:Pediatrics; D012008:Recurrence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D017741:Survivors; D014019:Tissue Donors; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D015234:HLA-A Antigens; D015235:HLA-B Antigens; D006684:HLA-DR Antigens; D059811:HLA-DRB1 Chains