Cardiac chimerism in recipients of peripheral-blood and bone marrow stem cells

Multipotent progenitor cells have the ability to differentiate into most somatic cell types, including cardiac myocytes. We sought to investigate cardiac chimerism after peripheral-blood and bone marrow stem cell transplantation. Between 10 and 17 highly polymorphic short tandem repeat (STR) markers were assayed in DNA obtained from donors' peripheral blood, recipients' peripheral blood before transplantation, and the recipient's heart in every patient. Gender and non-gender STR donor alleles were identified in the recipient heart in three patients. Using a highly sensitive PCR assay to determine donor and recipient genotypes, we confirmed the existence of cardiac chimerism in recipients of peripheral-blood and bone marrow stem cells.