Our Research Milestones and Clinical Trials Learn about our research program in marrow and blood stem cell transplantation 
|
|
|
Our clinical research in transplantation is focused on both autologous transplant (in which the patient's own stem cells are reinfused into the bloodstream) and allogeneic transplant (in which stem cells from the marrow or peripheral blood of another person -- either a related or unrelated donor -- are given to the patient). With both types of transplants, patients first undergo a preparative or cytoreductive regimen, which is a course of high-dose chemotherapy or radiation therapy, or a combination of both.
Since 1973, when our physicians performed the first successful transplant of bone marrow from an unrelated donor, our investigators have been at the forefront of bone marrow and stem cell transplantation. Current research is focused on several areas to make transplantation available to many more patients, including a program to evaluate transplants from matched unrelated donors; the use of T cell-depleted allogeneic transplants and donor lymphocyte infusions, which permit HLA-mismatched relatives to serve as donors; and other transplant-preparative regimens that have resulted in one of the lowest rates of graft-versus-host disease in the nation.
Among our recent research accomplishments:
- We found that most women who develop menorrhagia while undergoing stem-cell transplant respond to a single hormone regimen that can be easily changed over to a standard oral contraceptive. Bone Marrow Transplant. 2004 Aug;34(4):363-6. [PubMed Abstract]
- We found that increasing T-cell age reduces effector cell activity but preserves proliferative capacity in a murine allogeneic major histocompatability complex-mismatched bone marrow transplant model. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. 2004 Jul;10(7):448-60. [PubMed Abstract]
- We examined the kinetics of gene expression in murine cutaneous graft-versus-host disease and found that the pattern was consistent with the evolution of cutaneous pathology as well as with current models of disease progression during cutaneous GVHD. Am J Pathol. 2004 Jun;164(6):2189-202. [PubMed Abstract]
- We reported that gene-transduced Langerhans cells maintained the activated phenotype as well as potent immunogenicity typical of mature dendritic cells. J Immunol. 2005 Jan 15;174(2):758-66. [PubMed Abstract]
- We found that a novel technique employing overlapping pentadecapeptides spanning CMVpp65 permits consistent generation of cytotoxic CD4 and CD8 virus-specific T cells for adoptive immunotherapy. Blood. 2005 Apr 1;105(7):2793-801. Epub 2004 Oct 28. [PubMed Abstract]
- A member of our team participated in research that found that transplant-related mortality, treatment failure, and mortality rates were similar between cord-blood and bone marrow groups. N Engl J Med. 2004 Nov 25;351(22):2265-75. [PubMed Abstract]
- We showed that the lack of the killer immunoglobulin-like receptor (KIR) significantly improved survival rates in patients with acute and chronic leukemia undergoing T cell-depleted stem-cell transplants, suggesting that this may be a prognostic feature for transplant outcome. Blood. 2005 Jun 15;105(12):4878-84. Epub 2005 Feb 24. [PubMed Abstract]
- We found T cells specific for oncofetal protein epitopes can be generated from healthy donors that lyse WT-1+ leukemias, and several solid tumors in children and adults in vitro and induce tumor regressions in vivo. Clin Cancer Res. 2004 Nov 1;10(21):7207-19. [PubMed Abstract]
