High incidences of graft failure and graft-versus-host disease in the recipients of bone marrow transplantations (BMT) from unrelated donors (URD) may reflect the existence of allelic disparities between the patient and the URD despite apparent HLA identity at HLA-A, HLA-B, and HLA-DRB1 loci. To identify the extent and pattern of allelic disparities at HLA-A and HLA-B loci, 128 patients and 484...

Despite the advent of targeted therapies and novel agents, allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation remains the only curative modality in the management of hematologic disorders. The necessity to find an HLA-matched related donor is a major obstacle that compromises the widespread application and development of this field. Matched unrelated donors and umbilical cord blood have emerged...

Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) remains the only potentially curative option for variety of hematologic disorders. Lack of a suitable fully HLA-matched donor limits this option for many patients. Without a suitable related or unrelated HLA-matched donor, umbilical cord blood and haploidentical family members provide a potential source of stem cells. Timely donor availabilit...

Umbilical cord-blood (UCB) is a well-recognized alternative source of stem cells for unrelated donor hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). As compared with other stem cell sources from adult donors, it has the advantages of immediate availability of cells, absence of risk to the donor and reduced risk of graft-versus-host disease despite donor-recipient HLA disparity. However, the use...

The mechanisms underlying rejection of grafted neural tissue are still being defined. Mechanisms relevant to genetically engineered cells are of current interest. To date, attention has focused on major histocompatibility complex (MHC) antigens as targets of graft rejection. Yet even when there is no MHC disparity, as when the patient's own cells are genetically altered, there is still a potent...

Primary plasma cell leukaemia (PCL) is a rare, aggressive neoplasm of plasma cell dyscrasia. Conventional chemotherapy is usually ineffective, with an overall survival of only 8 months. Here, we describe a 42-year-old man with primary PCL, who was successfully treated with haploidentical (2-HLA loci mismatched) haematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT). To overcome the human leukocyte ant...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Detecting differences in the variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) between a recipient and a donor has already been used to monitor the degree of chimerism after allogeneic stem cell transplantation (SCT). Alongside major histocompatibility complex disparity, the disparity of various polymorphous proteins encoded by several genes may play a critical role in the path...

Results of a previous study suggested that recipient mismatching for the minor histocompatibility antigen HA-1 is associated with acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) after allogeneic marrow transplantation. In that study, most patients received either cyclosporine or methotrexate for GVHD prophylaxis, and a cytotoxic T-cell clone was used to test for HA-1 disparity. To facilitate large-scale...

background hepatitis c virus (hcv) infection is the most significant source of chronic liver diseases in the globe. about 170 million individuals are infected by hcv worldwide. the reported prevalence of hcv in different areas of khyber pakhtunkhwa (kp) ranges from 4.1 to 36%. objectives the current study aimed to analyze the true prevalence of hcv infection in khyber pakhtunkhwa, pakistan. mat...