Efficacy of Bone Marrow Stem-Cell Infusion and Survival of Renal Transplantation in Non-relative Transplant Recipients

The present study investigated the effect of donor stem cells on improving transplant survival and reducing the need to use repressive drugs in patients with kidney transplant.
The clinical trial included two groups of patients. A total of five patients received stem cells prepared from the peripheral blood (18–23 ×109 cells/case) four times before and after the transplantation (intervention group). This was in addition to renal transplantation from an unrelated donor. The control group comprised eight patients who received renal transplantation from non-relative recipients. The level of peripheral blood chimerism was determined by the incompatibility of HLA and using a PCR-flow cytometry combined method in the first, third, and twelfth-month after the transplantation.
CMV infection was present in 12.5% of patients in the control group whereas 37.5% had urinary tract infection and 12.5% had digestive problems. Five out of eight patients in the control group acutely rejected the transplant in comparison with two out of five patients in the intervention group. Additionally, in each group, a case of exponential rejection was reported. The evaluation of peripheral active chimerism in two patients with stable transplant and normal function showed that peripheral chimerism was detectable up to 3 months after transplantation. No sign of transplant rejection was observed in the presence of chimerism.
Injection of donor stem cells can cause peripheral chimerism in kidney transplant recipients. The injection has a direct relation to the improvement of transplant function and increases in its survival.