Findings from University of Basel broaden understanding of cord blood
2009 JUL 13 - (NewsRx.com) -- According to a study from Basel, Switzerland, "Allogeneic haematopoietic SCT is a standard therapy for many patients with haematological diseases. A major aim of public umbilical cord blood (UCB) banking is to establish an inventory with a large HLA diversity." "Few studies have compared HLA diversity between UCB banks and volunteer unrelated donor (VUD) registries and examined whether UCB banks indeed collect more units with rare alleles and haplotypes. This study compares HLA-A/B/DRB1 allele frequencies and inferred A/B/DRB1-haplotypes in 1602 UCB units and 3093 VUD from two centres in distinct recruitment areas in Switzerland. The results show that the frequencies of HLA-DRB1 alleles as well as of the HLA-A/B/DRB1 haplotypes differ between UCB and VUD. Ten DRB1 alleles occurred at a 2- to 12-fold higher relative frequency in UCB than in VUD and 27 rare alleles were identified in UCB. Out of these 27 alleles, 15 were absent in the entire VUD data set of the national registry. This difference in allele frequencies was found only by intermediate/high-resolution typing. Targeted recruitment of UCB units from non-Caucasian donors could further increase HLA allele and haplotype diversity of available donors. Intermediate or high-resolution DNA typing is essential to identify rare alleles or allele groups," wrote S. Meyermonard and colleagues, University of Basel. The researchers concluded: "Bone Marrow Transplantation (2009) 43, 771-778; doi10.1038/bmt.2008.391; published online 8 December 2008'." Meyermonard and colleagues published their study in Bone Marrow Transplantation (Cord blood banks collect units with different HLA alleles and haplotypes to volunteer donor banks: a comparative report from Swiss Blood stem cells. Bone Marrow Transplantation, 2009;43(10):771-778). For more information, contact S. Meyermonard, University of Basel Hospital, Basel Stem Cell Transplant Team, Division Hematology, Petersgraben 4, CH-4031 Basel, Switzerland. Publisher contact information for the journal Bone Marrow Transplantation is: Nature Publishing Group, Macmillan Building, 4 Crinan St., London N1 9XW, England. Keywords: Switzerland, Basel, Blood Banking, Blood Transfusion, Bone Marrow Transplantation, Cord Blood, Medical Device, Stem Cell Research, Surgery, Therapy, Transfusion Medicine, Treatment, University of Basel. This article was prepared by Stem Cell Week editors from staff and other reports. Copyright 2009, Stem Cell Week via NewsRx.com.
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