title: Autologous bone marrow transplantation for the treatment of multiple sclerosis.
abstract: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system and represents one of the leading causes of neurologic disability in young adults. Current treatments for MS have shown limited efficacy in patients with either a progressive or an aggressive disease course. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) has been proposed to control or even cure refractory cases of MS. Indeed, HSCT is able to temporarily eradicate the autoreactive cells and to reset the aberrant immune response to self-antigens. In the last decade, owing to the growing experience in selecting the most appropriate patients to transplant and the recent advances in chemotherapeutic and support regimens, the transplant-related mortality of autologous HSCT in MS patients dropped down to 1,3 % and the progression-free survival ranges from 47 % to 100 %. Altogether, these data support autologous HSCT as a possible second-line therapy for refractory MS.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Vita Salute San Raffaele University, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Radaelli
authors.forename: Arianna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Merlini
authors.forename: Raffaella
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Greco
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sangalli
authors.forename: Giancarlo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Comi
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ciceri
authors.forename: Gianvito
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Martino
mesh_terms: D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000601:surgery*; D014182:Transplantation, Autologous / Q000379:methods