Effect of natural killer cells on syngeneic bone marrow: in vitro and in
vivo studies demonstrating graft failure due to NK cells in an identical
twin treated by bone marrow transplantation
GD Goss, MA Wittwer, WR Bezwoda, J Herman, A Rabson, L Seymour, DP Derman and B Mendelow
Bone marrow transplantation for severe idiopathic aplastic anemia was
undertaken in a patient, using his monozygotic twin brother as the donor.
In spite of the use of syngeneic bone marrow, failure of engraftment
occurred on two occasions. In vitro studies demonstrated that natural
killer (NK) cells from the recipient markedly inhibited the growth of donor
bone marrow granulocyte progenitor cells. On a third attempt, successful
bone marrow engraftment was achieved following high-dose cyclophosphamide,
which has previously been shown to be inhibitory to NK cells. We conclude
that NK cell activity may play an important role in bone marrow failure as
well as being responsible for at least some cases of aplastic anemia.
Volume 66,
Issue 5,
pp. 1043-1046,
11/01/1985
Copyright © 1985 by The American Society of Hematology
