Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter to the Editor
  • Published:

Deleterious effects of KIR ligand incompatibility on clinical outcomes in haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation without in vitro T-cell depletion

Leukemia volume 21, pages 848–851 (2007)Cite this article

KIR ligand incompatibility in graft versus host disease is associated with natural killer (NK) cell alloreactivity.1 The effect of this incompatibility on outcomes of haploidentical or mismatched unrelated hematopoitic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) remains controversial,1, 2, 3 possibly because of assessments using different transplant protocols with varying levels of T-cell depletion in vitro or in vivo. In recent years, we have successfully established a novel conditioning protocol that includes anti-thymocyte globulin followed by haploidentical HSCT without in vitro T-cell depletion, and we have found that this protocol can achieve outcomes comparable to those obtained with HLA-matched transplantation.4 Because of inconsistent NK cell-mediated alloreactivity in haploidentical or mismatched unrelated HSCT, we analyzed the relationship of the KIR ligand mismatch with clinical outcomes in our cohort of 116 patients.

This analysis included 116 recipients of haploidentical donor HSCT at the Peking University Institute of Hematology between November 2002 and October 2005; patients had allele-level molecular typing performed at HLA-A, -B, -C and -DRB1. Cases were divided into those with and those without KIR ligand incompatibility, as described by Ruggeri et al.1 based on known KIR ligands (HLA-C alleles with Asn77-Lys80; HLA-C alleles with Ser77-Asn80; and HLA-Bw4 alleles). All patients and their donors gave written informed consent, and this study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Peking University Institute of Hematology.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1
Figure 2

References

  1. Ruggeri L, Capanni M, Casucci M, Volpi I, Tosti A, Perruccio K et al. Role of natural killer cell alloreactivity in HLA-mismatched hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Blood 1999; 94: 333–339.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Farag SS, Bacigalupo A, Eapen M, Hurley C, Dupont B, Caligiuri MA et al. The effect of KIR Ligand Incompatibility on the outcome of unrelated donor transplantation: a report from the center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research, the European Blood and Marrow Transplant Registry, and the Dutch Registry. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant 2006; 12: 876–884.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Giebel S, Locatelli F, Lamparelli T, Velardi A, Davies S, Frumento G et al. Survival advantage with KIR ligand incompatibility in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation from unrelated donors. Blood 2003; 102: 814–819.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Huang XJ, Liu DH, Liu KY, Xu LP, Chen H, Han W et al. Haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation without in vitro T cell depletion for the treatment of hematological malignancies. Bone Marrow Transplant 2006; 38: 291–297.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Cooley S, McCullar V, Wangen R, Bergemann TL, Spellman S, Weisdorf DJ et al. KIR reconstitution is altered by T cells in the graft and correlates with clinical outcomes after unrelated donor transplantation. Blood 2005; 106: 4370–4376.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Huang XJ, Chang YJ, Zhao XY . Maintaining hyporesponsiveness and polarization potential of T cells after in vitro mixture of G-CSF mobilized peripheral blood grafts and G-CSF primed bone marrow grafts in different proportions. Transpl Immunol 2006, doi 10.1016/j.trim.2006.10.002.

  7. Leung W, Iyengar R, Turner V, Lang P, Bader P, Conn P et al. Determinants of Antileukemia Effects of Allogeneic NK Cells. J Immunol 2004; 172: 644–650.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Verheyden S, Schots R, Duquet W, Demanet C . A defined donor activating natural killer cell receptor genotype protects against leukemic relapse after related HLA-identical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Leukemia 2005; 19: 1446–1451.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no.30470753), program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NECT-04-0011).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Bone Marrow Transplantation, Peking University Institute of Hematology, Peking University People's Hospital, Beijing, China

    X-j Huang, X-y Zhao, D-h Liu, K-y Liu & L-p Xu

Authors
  1. X-j Huang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. X-y Zhao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. D-h Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. K-y Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. L-p Xu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to X-j Huang.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Huang, Xj., Zhao, Xy., Liu, Dh. et al. Deleterious effects of KIR ligand incompatibility on clinical outcomes in haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation without in vitro T-cell depletion. Leukemia 21, 848–851 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2404566

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2404566

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links