[A pilot study in treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus by autologous bone marrow transplant]

To explore the clinical effect for treatment of SLE by autologous bone marrow transplantation(ABMT).

Three patients with refractory SLE were chosen. BM stem cells were harvested from the posterior superior iliac crests under epidural anesthesia and preserved in 4 degrees C. BM stem cells were reinfused after conditioned by CTX (120 mg/kg) and malphalan (140 mg/m(2)) or VP-16 (1.0 g/m(2)). G-CSF was used to help hematopoietic and immunologic reconstitution.

These three patients had clinical remission after transplantation; the levels of immunoglobulins declined and complements rose up. Most of the auto-antibodies turned negative. Skin pathology in case 2 showed that the former tissue injury alleviated or disappeared. Moreover, myocardial hypertrophy and pericardial effusion also disappeared.

(1) ABMT is obviously effective for SLE. The duration of remission remains to be decided in long-term follow up. (2) Mechanisms of improvement are possibly related to decrease of immunologic pathological cells in tissues after conditioning, reduction of the level of immunoglobulins and drop of the quantity of auto-antibodies.