title: Analysis of chimerism during the early period after allogeneic peripheral stem cell transplantation.
abstract: As there are few reports on early evaluation of chimerism, we assessed fluorescence short tandem repeats (STR) by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays to analyse donor and recipient characteristics at early time points after peripheral stem cell transplantation (PBSCT). Peripheral blood of 13 patients was analysed in 1- to 2-day intervals starting from the day of PBSCT. Donor and recipient allelic patterns were determined by a commercially available multiplex STR assay that simultaneously evaluates four or five gene loci. Mixed chimerism appeared in all patients during days 1-9 after transplantation and preceded haematologic engraftment for 3-12 days. Even patients without myeloablative conditioning therapy (n=4) revealed donor allelic patterns within 1-5 days. Nine patients changed during the following days to a complete donor allelic pattern and had an uncomplicated post-transplant disease course. Four patients did not consistently retain complete donor chimerism; two of them relapsed within the next 3 months, one died from septicemia within 7 days, and the fourth, transplanted for aplastic anaemia, is still in complete remission. Overall, STR analysis using a simple and comparatively cheap multiplex system permits the detection of chimerism very early after transplantation and may provide relevant information that correlates with the clinical follow-up.
authors.affiliation: Department of Haematology, University Hospital Benjamin Franklin, Free University of Berlin, Germany. gleisner@zedat.fu-berlin.de
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gleissner
authors.forename: I W
authors.initials: IW
authors.lastname: Blau
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sindram
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Reinhardt
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Knauf
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Thiel
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000483:Alleles; D001773:Blood Cells; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006085:Graft Survival; D019337:Hematologic Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011379:Prognosis; D011933:Reagent Kits, Diagnostic / Q000592:standards*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D033581:Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000401:mortality*; D020080:Tandem Repeat Sequences; D013997:Time Factors; D018183:Transplantation Chimera; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous / Q000401:mortality
chemical_list: D011933:Reagent Kits, Diagnostic