R. Nounou et al., APOLIPROTEIN-B POLYMORPHISM - APPLICATION TO MONITORING EARLY BONE-MARROW TRANSPLANTATION IN SAUDI POPULATION, Annals of saudi medicine, 14(6), 1994, pp. 474-478
Seventy-three unrelated Saudi individuals and seven consecutive bone m
arrow transplant donor-recipient pairs were studied to characterize an
d determine the frequency of 3' apolipoprotein B alleles by polymerase
chain reaction. The samples analyzed were either peripheral blood or
bone marrow aspirates. Eleven different alleles were detected. The ind
ex of heterozygosity was 0.66. Apolipoprotein B analysis was informati
ve in 57% of the studied donor-recipient pairs. Engraftment was detect
ed as early as day three post-transplantation. The threshold of detect
ion of this allele was up to 0.01 x 10(6)/ml. Mixed chimerism of the o
rder of 1% could be detected. We concluded that apolipoprotein B is a
highly polymorphic allele among the Saudi population and this makes th
e region a useful marker for monitoring engraftment following allogene
ic bone marrow transplantation.