Neue Formen der Stammzelltransplantation

Transplantation of allogeneic blood stem cells is now an established therapy for certain malignant and non-malignant diseases. However, only in a minority of patients an HLA-identical sibling donor is available. Progress in the accuracy of HLA-typing and the expanding number of volunteer donors worldwide make it possible to identify a compatible unrelated donor for approximately 80% of patients. Establishing cord blood banks also increases the donor pool. An important advantage of cord blood is its immediate availability, the biggest disadvantage is the limited number of stem cells per unit. Peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) harvested after G-CSF stimulation are now the most common stem cell source. PBSC are the best material to apply separation techniques that allow the transplantation of highly purified stem cells with almost no T-cell contamination in the haploidentical setting, for example with parents as donors.