CD34 + CD38 - and CD34 +   HLA-DR - cells in BM stem cell grafts correlate with short-term engraftment but have no influence on long-term hematopoietic reconstitution after autologous transplantation.

Background Prior studies have demonstrated that relatively immature hematopoietic stem cells, including CD34 + CD38 - and CD34 +   HLA-DR - subsets, correlate with short-term hematopoietic reconstruction (SHR) after transplantation. The aim of this study was to investigate whether these immature CD34 + subsets also correlate with long-term hematopoietic reconstitution (LHR) in recipients of ABMT. Methods We examined stem cell grafts from 58 patients with B-cell lymphoma or CLL who underwent ABMT after myeloablative conditioning. We determined whether total mononuclear cell dose (MNC), colony-forming unit–granulocyte-monocyte (CFU-GM), CD34 + cell dose and CD34 + cell subsets (CD34 +   CD38 - and CD34 +   HLA-DR - ) were associated with SHR and/or LHR. Time to neutrophil engraftment (TNE) and time to platelet engraftment (TPE) were used to measure SHR, while platelet counts at day 100 and 1 year post-ABMT were used as indicators for LHR. Results and discussion CD34 + cell dose and CD34 + cell subsets were significantly associated with SHR. However, at day 100 and 1 year post-transplant only total CD34 + cell dose was associated with LHR. The association of total CD34 + cell dose with LHR persisted after adjusting for age, sex and disease. None of the CD34 + cell subsets analyzed showed evidence of significant association with LHR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]