Non-Myeloablative Method for Transplants Doesn't Use Chemo

[Guest guest]

" Antibody-based depletion of hematopoietic stem cells empties

niches for efficient transplantation, " will be presented by Agnieszka

Czechowicz, a medical student at Stanford

University School of Medicine.

Currently, the use of bone marrow/stem cell transplantation (BMT/HSCT) in

hematologic malignancies, as well as diabetes, multiple sclerosis, or

solid organ transplantation, is limited by the

toxicity of the conditioning regimens.

Myeloablative conditioning regimens, including irradiation and

chemotherapy,

are thought to be required to eliminate host HSCs and allow donor HSC

engraftment. Thus, Czechowicz

and her colleagues evaluated a novel non-myeloablative system using

ACK2, an antibody directed against C-kit,

a cell surface antigen expressed on HSCs.

They found that when ACK2 was cultivated with endogenous HSCs,

there was 98 percent removal of host HSCs, which allowed 180-fold

higher engraftment of donor HSCs, thus

suggesting a potentially promising approach in human BMT/HSCT.

http://www.hematology.org/client_files/meeting/2007/newsdaily/LateBreakingAbstra\

cts.pdf