Science News Article - Transplant reaction reversed in patients

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Transplant reaction reversed in patients

Seppa

From Orlando, Fla., at a meeting of the American Society of Hematology

Patients with leukemia get a fighting chance when they receive a transplant of

bone marrow cells from a healthy donor. Unfortunately, immune cells from these

new arrivals can run amok in the recipient, creating a life-threatening

complication called graft-versus-host disease (GVHD).

Last year, scientists in Sweden trying a new approach to reverse severe GVHD in

16 patients reported some early success (SN: 12/24/05, p. 417: Available to

subscribers at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20051224/note17.asp). They

gave patients an additional transplant, using only adult mesenchymal stem cells

from the marrow. These cells typically become bone, muscle, or other connective

tissues but also can develop into a wide variety of other cells.

The researchers now report that 52 people who had severe GVHD after a previous

bone marrow transplant have undergone the novel procedure.

Twenty-two of these patients remain alive, half in remarkably good health, says

physician Katarina Le Blanc of the Karolinska University Hospital Huddinge in

Stockholm. Some have survived more than 3 1/2 years.

" All these patients would have died, and quickly, " Le Blanc says. In some

patients, the transplanted mesenchymal cells appeared to have immunosuppressive

and possibly anti-inflammatory effects that shut down GVHD. There is also

evidence that they aided the healing of damaged organs, she says.