No abstract

Sixty-three recipients of an allogeneic marrow transplant were screened for the occurrence of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection and clinical parameters possibly predicting the development of CMV disease in a retrospective study. Blood and urine samples obtained from these patients were screened weekly after bone marrow transplantation (BMT) for the presence of CMV by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and virus culture technique. Forty-six of the 63 patients studied were found to be CMV-positive by PCR technique in blood and urine samples at a median of 29 days after BMT. In 33 of these 46 patients, CMV could be cultured from urine samples and 16 of the 46 had culture-positive viremia. Twenty-eight of these 46 PCR-positive patients developed CMV disease. Whereas PCR assays showed an optimal negative predictive value and sensitivity for the development of CMV disease, their positive predictive value was 61% and could not be remarkably increased when culture-proven viruria (64%) and viremia (69%) were considered. Acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) grade 2 to 4 (P < .05), but not underlying disease, conditioning therapy, or GVHD prophylaxis, was associated with CMV infection. On day +49, a remarkable decrease (P < .001) in the lymphocyte count, as well as in the absolute number of CD4+, CD8+, and CD56+ lymphocytes, occurred only among the patients who later developed CMV disease. The decrease of all of these cell counts, but predominantly the CD4+ T cells, to less than 100/microL on day +49 after BMT showed a very high positive predictive value (100%) for the development of CMV disease in patients with PCR-proven viremia. Persisting CD4 lymphopenia after antiviral therapy was only observed in patients who finally died of CMV disease. Thus, immunophenotyping of the patients after BMT in addition to a highly sensitive virus detection assay might help to identify patients at high risk to develop CMV disease and indicate the need for additional adoptive immunotherapy.

Summary In a variety of adult and childhood leukaemia cell samples collected at different states of the disease, we analysed in a series of sequentially performed slot-blot or Northern-blot hybridisation experiments the expression of genes possibly involved in multiple drug resistance (MDR) (mdrl/P-glycoprotein, DNA topoisomerase II, glutathione-S-transferase x), and the expression of the DNA topoisomerase I and histone 3.1 genes. Occasionally, P-glycoprotein gene expression was additionally examined by indirect immunocytofluorescence using the monoclonal antibody C219. No significant difference in mdrl/P-glycoprotein mRNA levels between primary and relapsed state acute lymphocytic leukaemias (ALL) was seen on average. Second or third relapses, however, showed a distinct tendency to an elevated expression of this multidrug transporter gene (up to 10-fold) in part well beyond the value seen in the moderately cross-resistant T-lymphoblastoid CCRF-CEM subline CCRF VCR 100. Increased mdrl/P-glycoprotein mRNA levels were also found in relapsed state acute myelogeneous leukaemias (AML), and in chronic lymphocytic leukaemias (CLL) treated with chlorambucil and/or prednisone for several years. Topoisomerase I and topoisomerase II mRNA levels were found to be very variable. Whereas in all but one case of CLL topoisomerase II mRNA was not detected

The model allows the identification of female donors who eventually have a significant risk of harvest failure if requested to donate for recipients with a high body weight.

Analyses of healthy donors of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) mobilized hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) and of patients undergoing autologous stem cell transplantation have suggested that individuals harboring the CXCL12-A allele mobilize a higher number of CD34 + HSPCs after G-CSF administration. We typed 463 healthy unrelated donors (376 men and 87 women) who had received daily subcutaneous injections at a mean dose of 7.36 ± 1.71 μg/kg G-CSF for 5 days for CXCL12 801 G/A using a real-time PCR assay. Interestingly, the median concentration of mobilized CD34 + cells on day 5 was almost identical in donors with the A-allele (79/μL; range, 11 to 249/μL) and the G/G-group (82/μL; range, 15 to 268/μL). In addition, the allelic distribution was not different in donors (n = 11) who mobilized less than 20/μL CD34 + cells. No difference in the overall yield of CD34 + cells in the apheresis product and in the number of CD34 + cells/kg recipient could be detected between both groups. In a multivariate regression model for the endpoint CD34 + cells/μL at day 5, only male sex (regression coefficient, 11.5; 95% confidence interval, 1.7 to 21.2, P = .021) and body mass index as continuous variables (regression coefficient, 3.5; 95% confidence interval, 2.5 to 4.5, P = .0001) but not age, smoking status, or CXCL12 allelic status represented independent variables. Our data derived from a large well-controlled cohort contradict previous analyses suggesting an association between CXCL12 allelic status and the yield of CD34 + HSPC after G-CSF mobilization. Concentration of CD34 + cells in the peripheral blood, the most objective parameter, could not be predicted by CXCL12 genotype.