Mahmoud Aljurf, Hala Abalkhail, Amal Alseraihy, Said Y Mohamed, Mouhab Ayas, Fahad Alsharif, Hazza Alzahrani, Abdullah Al-Jefri, Ghuzayel Aldawsari, Ali Al-Ahmari, Asim F Belgaumi, Claudia Ulrike Walter, Hassan El-Solh, Walid Rasheed, Maher Albitar
Background. We studied DNA chimerism in cell-free DNA (cfDNA) in patients treated with HSCT. Methods. Chimerism analysis was performed on CD3+ cells, polymorphonuclear (PMN) cells, and cfDNA using 16 small tandem repeat loci. The resulting labeled PCR-products were size-fractionated and quantified. Results. Analyzing samples from 191 patients treated with HSCT for nonneoplastic hematologic disorders demonstrated that the cfDNA chimerism is comparable to that seen in PMN cells. Analyzing leukemia patients (N = 126) showed that, of 84 patients with 100% donor DNA in PMN, 16 (19%) had evidence of clinical relapse and >10% recipient DNA in the plasma...
2016: Biotechnology Research International