Long-term follow-up in patients with severe combined immunodeficiency treated by bone marrow transplantation

Immune reconstitution was studied in 31 long-term surviving patients after bone marrow transplantation for severe combined immunodeficiency. Donors in 7 cases were HLA-identical and in 25 cases HLA-haploidentical family members, and in 13 of these latter cases cytoreductive conditioning had been used prior to transplantation. At a mean follow-up of 15 years after transplantation (range 10 to 22 years), T cell numbers and functions had remained stable and within normal limits in the majority of patients. Marked variability however was observed with regard to reconstitution of B cell immunity. Furthermore numbers of circulating naïve CD4+ T cells were variable and markedly diminished in a substantial proportion of patients at recent evaluations. Normal B cell immunity and persistently normal naïve T cell numbers were strongly correlated with the continued detection of donor type CD34+ precursor cells in the patients marrow, which were absent in non conditioned patients. These findings indicate that stable donor precursor cell engraftment in the marrow may be of relevance for complete and stable long-term immune reconstitution in transplanted SCID patients.