[In vitro manipulation of bone marrow cells for bone marrow transplantation]

Recently, in vitro manipulations of bone marrow cells have been developed for the prevention of relapse in autologous bone marrow transplantation (BMT) and for the prevention of graft versus host disease in allogeneic BMT. Two methods were mainly employed clinically for the depletion of cells from transplanted bone marrow cells. Firstly, bone marrow cells were treated in vitro with monoclonal antibodies reactive to leukemia cells or T cells using complement, immunotoxin or magnetic bead. Secondly, bone marrow cells were incubated with cancer drugs such as 4-HC or mafosfamide. Our results and other reports using in vitro purging of leukemia or lymphoma cells suggest that these autologous BMTs are effective modes of cancer therapy in patients with hematological malignancies.