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Extensive bone marrow necrosis resolved by allogeneic umbilical cord blood mesenchymal stem cell transplantation in a chronic myeloid leukemia patient

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 50, pages 1265–1268 (2015)Cite this article

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Extensive bone marrow necrosis (BMN) is a relatively rare clinical pathologic entity. Usually, 90% of BMN cases are associated with malignancies (mainly hematological). The morphological features of BMN are disruption of normal marrow architecture, and necrosis of myeloid tissue and medullary stroma.1 The pathogenesis of BMN is still unclear.2 It has been suggested that BMN could be mediated by reactive CD8+ cytotoxic T cells3 or the release of either toxins or soluble mediators.4 BMN might correlate with elevated TNF-α levels.5, 6 Traditionally, there is a high mortality rate in BMN.7, 8 The prognosis of patients with BMN that is secondary to neoplastic disease is extremely poor, with survival not exceeding 6 months from the date of marrow necrosis diagnosis.9 There is no effective treatment for BMN; therefore, it is particularly important to seek an effective treatment.

Umbilical cord-derived MSCs (UC-MSCs) are precursor cells that can differentiate into BM stromal cells, which have a critical role in providing the essential microenvironment for hematopoiesis. On the basis of the hematopoietic support, immunosuppressive properties and low immuno-phenotype of UC-MSCs, we postulated that BMN may be corrected by infusion of allogeneic MSCs. Here, for the first time, we present a BMN case with CML patient that was successfully resolved by UC-MSCs.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a grant-in-aid from the National Science Foundation of China (No. 81372132).

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  1. Y Pan and X Wang: These authors contributed equally to this work.

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  1. Department of Hematology, Lanzhou General Hospital, Lanzhou, China

    Y Pan, X Wang, C Wang, Q Zhang, R Xi, J Bai & H Bai

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  1. Y Pan
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Correspondence to H Bai.

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Pan, Y., Wang, X., Wang, C. et al. Extensive bone marrow necrosis resolved by allogeneic umbilical cord blood mesenchymal stem cell transplantation in a chronic myeloid leukemia patient. Bone Marrow Transplant 50, 1265–1268 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/bmt.2015.60

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