D6STNFA MICROSATELLITE LOCUS CORRELATES WITH CTLP FREQUENCY IN UNRELATED BONE-MARROW DONOR-RECIPIENT PAIRS

The use of unrelated donors for bone marrow transplantation is associa ted with an increased morbidity and mortality when compared with HLA i dentical siblings, primarily due to an increased rate of graft-versus- host-disease. HLA matching for donors and recipients is the most impor tant factor influencing the outcome of BMT. However, unrelated donor s election generally relies on matching only for HLA antigens without co nsidering potential incompatibility for other MHC loci. Cellular assay s have been developed to predict incompatibility that cannot be detect ed by current typing methods, The CTLp, frequencies correlate with the degree of incompatibility of patient/donor and the clinical grade of GVHD. Since the CTLp assay is expensive and time consuming, an alterna tive is wanted. We studied the means of matching for microsatellites i n determining MHC identity and possible correlation with CTLp frequenc ies. Therefore, 26 recipient/donor pairs were analysed for eleven micr osatellite loci within and around the MHC region. Our study provides e vidence that the D6STNFa locus correlates with CTLp frequency. The D6S TNFa locus provides an additional marker that may help to improve the matching of unrelated donors and bone marrow recipients. (C) American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics, 1998. Published by Elsevier Science Inc.