Association between the SDF1-3 ' A allele and high levels of CD34(+) progenitor cells mobilized into peripheral blood in humans

Some patients unexpectedly fail to mobilize sufficient numbers of haematopo ietic progenitor cells (HPCs) into the peripheral blood for autologous tran splantation. Considering the important role of the chemokine stromal cell-d erived factor 1 (SDF-1) in HPC homing, we investigated a possible relations hip between SDF1 gene polymorphism and HPC mobilization capacity in 63 pati ents with malignancy. Some 67% of the good mobilizers (greater than or equa l to 50 CD34(+) cells/mul) and only 36% of the intermediate/poor mobilizers were SDF1-3 'A allele carriers (P = 0.032). In multivariate analysis, the presence of the SDF1-3 'A allele was the only factor predictive of good CD3 4(+) cell mobilization (P = 0.025), This is the first report showing the in volvement of genetic factors for HPC mobilization in humans and suggests a significant role for SDF-1 in this process.