HISTOCOMPATIBILITY MATCHING FOR BONE-MARROW TRANSPLANTATION - DONOR-RECIPIENT PAIRS IN THE 4AOHW CELL PANEL

While the results of unrelated bone marrow transplantation are continu ally improving, a number of important issues remain: what are the hist ocompatibility requirements, what genes are involved, what mismatches are acceptable, and what are the best methods for determining donor-re cipient match? In this study of material provided through the 4AOHW an d the US NMDP, the match between 53 donor-recipient pairs was determin ed using several different markers within the MHC. The data showed tha t many apparently well-matched pairs have many mismatches, including m ismatches for non-HLA genes (i.e., non-class-I or non-class-II) within the MHC. New methods matching for blocks of DNA around HLA-B and arou nd HLA-DR/DQ are available that are sensitive and identify additional mismatches that are not apparent using conventional typing methods. Th e 4AOHW cells provide a valuable resource for the comparison and asses sment of new matching techniques.