HLA Typing for Bone Marrow Transplantation
New Polymerase Chain Reaction—Based Methods
- Ann B. Begovich, PhD;
- Henry A. Erlich, PhD
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
Excerpt
BONE MARROW transplantation, first introduced into clinical practice in the 1960s, has now become an accepted form of therapy for a variety of hematologic malignancies as well as a number of other cancers, inherited blood disorders, immunodeficiency syndromes, and certain metabolic diseases.1,2 In general, the purpose of bone marrow transplantation is to (1) replace malignant or genetically defective hematopoietic stem cells with healthy, fully functional stem cells; (2) allow the cancer patient to survive the high-dose radiation and/or chemotherapy required to destroy the malignant cells; and (3) in the case of certain cancers, provide a source of immunocompetent cells that can destroy any residual malignant cells (graft vs leukemia effect).3-5 The clinical procedure of bone marrow transplantation involves the destruction of the patient's own marrow by irradiation and/or chemotherapy followed by the infusion of healthy bone marrow obtained from another individual (an allogeneic transplant). In cases of solid
Footnotes
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Reprint requests to Department of Human Genetics, Roche Molecular Systems Inc, 1145 Atlantic Ave, Alameda, CA 94501 (Dr Begovich).
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Toward Optimal Laboratory Use section editor: George D. Lundberg, MD, Editor, JAMA.
