HUMAN UMBILICAL-CORD BLOOD MYELOID PROGENITOR CELLS ARE RELATIVELY CHEMORESISTANT - A POTENTIAL MODEL FOR AUTOLOGOUS TRANSPLANTATIONS IN HIV-INFECTED NEWBORNS

Vertical transmission from mother to child occurs in 15-39% of women i nfected with the human immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Stem cell transpl antation has recently been suggested as a potential therapy for patien ts with HIV infection, We have examined the possible advantages of hum an cord blood (HUCB) stem cells over bone marrow (BM) stem cells in th e treatment of HIV-infected newborns, HUCB myeloid progenitors were fo und to be statistically more resistant to interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) , cytarabine (ARA-C), and eilatin than BM myeloid progenitor cells gro wn with IL-3 (P< 0.05), HUCB treated with IFN-alpha, ARA-C, and eilati n demonstrated a significantly higher capacity for self-renewal manife sted by delta assay following 7 days in liquid culture, We, therefore, suggest that HUCB purged by anti-HIV drugs may be a source for autolo gous transplantation in HIV-infected newborns. (C) 1997 Wiley-Liss, In c.