¹Department of Pediatrics, Division of Allergy, Immunology & Rheumatology, University of South Florida/All Children's Hospital, St Petersburg, Florida, USA

Correspondence: Dr OY Jones, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Allergy, Immunology & Rheumatology, University of South Florida/All Children's Hospital, 801 Sixth Street South, St Petersburg, FL 33701, USA. E-mail: joneso@allkids.org.

²Current address: Cardinal Glennon Hospital, 1625 South Grand Avenue, St Louis, Missouri 63104, USA

Received 22 August 2003; Accepted 2 January 2004; Published online 29 March 2004.

Abstract

A 13-year-old Caucasian female with a systemic connective tissue disease (overlap syndrome with pulmonary vasculitis) underwent nonmyeloablative allogeneic BMT after failure of prolonged combination immunosuppressives to induce remission. The procedure also included cotransplantation of donor bone chips as a source of stromal cells. The unique protocol allowed good engraftment of hematopoietic (>95%) and bone core stromal cells (>60%). The patient was clinically improved, stable, and off all immunosuppressive medications 36 months post-transplant. To our knowledge, this is the first pediatric nonmyeloablative BMT with cotransplantation of stromal cells solely for treatment of an autoimmune disease.