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Comparison of peripheral blood and bone marrow samples for detection of post transplant mixed chimerism

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 41, pages 589–590 (2008)Cite this article

Molecular analysis for donor–recipient chimerism after allogeneic SCT is an important component of routine monitoring and can assist in the detection of early disease relapse. Some attempts at the standardization of the techniques, frequency of testing and types of samples for analysis have been previously suggested.1 Although peripheral blood has been suggested to be more useful than BM in the analysis of post transplant chimerism, there have not been any studies of which we are aware of comparing peripheral blood to BM analysis. In our institution, BM samples are more commonly monitored in the pediatric population, while peripheral blood samples are more routinely examined in the adult population. We have noted that several patients have had simultaneous, or closely spaced, peripheral blood and BM sampling, some of which have shown different results with regards to chimerism. For this reason, we wanted to evaluate the sensitivity of detecting mixed chimerism in BM samples as compared to peripheral blood.

This study was approved by the institutional review board of Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The database of the molecular genetics laboratory at Vanderbilt Medical Center contains collected chimerism data on all patients transplanted at our center. Between January 2005 and June 2007, 49 patients had 63 simultaneous or closely spaced analyses of BM and peripheral blood chimerism. An extensive chart review was performed to determine age, gender, underlying diagnosis, type of transplant, conditioning therapy and outcome. All post transplant patients at our center have routine chimerism analysis at 30, 100 and 365 days post transplant. Additional chimerism analysis may be performed at the discretion of treating physician based on the patient's clinical status.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, Nashville, TN, USA

    J Stumph & C L Vnencak-Jones

  2. Department of Pediatrics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, Nashville, TN, USA

    C L Vnencak-Jones

  3. Department of Biostatistics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, Nashville, TN, USA

    T Koyama

  4. Department of Pediatric Stem Cell Transplant, Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, Nashville, TN, USA

    H Frangoul

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  1. J Stumph
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  2. C L Vnencak-Jones
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Correspondence to H Frangoul.

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Stumph, J., Vnencak-Jones, C., Koyama, T. et al. Comparison of peripheral blood and bone marrow samples for detection of post transplant mixed chimerism. Bone Marrow Transplant 41, 589–590 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bmt.1705938

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