[Establishment of rhesus model for haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation with nonmyeloablative...

To study if rhesus haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation model can be established by non-myeloablative conditioning, parent monkeys were used as donors, offspring monkeys were used as recipients. The recipient monkeys received a nonmyeloablative conditioning consisting of fludarabine, cyclophosphamide, total body irradiation and rabbit anti-human thymocyte globulin. Cyclosporine, mycophenolate mofetil and anti CD25 antibody were used for GVHD prevention. Donor mobilized peripheral blood stem cells were transplantated on day 0. Hematopoietic recovery, chimerism level, GVHD were assessed regularly. The results indicated that hematopoietic recoveries in all 4 cases were observed within 8 days after transplantation. Donor hematopoietic chimerism could be induced in all cases, chimerism analysis showed full donor chimerism (FDC) in case 3 and 4, and II to III grade GVHD developed on day 12 and 14. In case 1, only low level donor chimerism was detected on day 7, and transplantation rejection happened eventually. Unfortunately, kidney failure happened in case 2 after conditioning and died several days later, chimerism analysis showed 50% donor rate on day 7. It is concluded that the rhesus transplantation model was successfully established by nonmyeloablative conditioning for striding over the MHC barrier. This rhesus monkey model would provide a basis for future research.