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Updated: Jul 17, 2026

Detection of Residual Donor Erythroid Progenitor Cells after Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation for Patients with Hemoglobinopathies
Published on: September 6, 2017
Liver chimerism after allogeneic blood stem cell transplantation
W R ten Hove1, H W Verspaget, R Barge
1Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, LUMC, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Unlabelled:
Blood stem cells can mature into elements of many different lineages. We investigated the presence and nature of donor-derived (chimeric) cells within the liver after allogeneic stem cell transplantation.
Methods:
Liver biopsy autopsy specimens were examined from nine female patients who had undergone allogeneic bone marrow (n = 6) or peripheral stem cell (n = 3) transplantation from a male donor. To identify the male origin of cells within the liver, in-situ hybridization for Y-chromosomes was performed in conjunction with CD45 staining to identify leucocytes.
Results:
Hematopoietic stem cell engraftment was confirmed in all nine recipients. Histologic examination of the liver tissue sections revealed 5.6-fold more Y-chromosome-positive than CD45-positive staining cells (P < .02), indicative of considerable nonleucocytic chimerism. This was particularly observed in patients who had developed graft-versus-host disease.
Conclusions:
Donor-derived cells can be found in liver tissue specimens after allogeneic stem cell transplantation. A considerable fraction of chimeric (donor-derived) cells appeared to be of nonlymphohematopoietic origin. This finding supports the theory of blood stem cells developing into liver cells of mesenchymal origin.
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