Chimerism of allogeneic mesenchymal cells in bone marrow, liver, and spleen after mesenchymal stem cells infusion

Although an infusion of culture-expanded MSCs is applied in clinic to improve results of HSCs transplantation and for a treatment of musculoskeletal disorders, homing, and engraftment potential of culture-expanded MSC in humans is still obscure. We report two female patients who received allogeneic BM transplantation as a treatment of hematological diseases and a transplantation of MSCs from third-party male donors. Both patients died within one yr of infectious complications. Specimens of paraffin-embedded blocks of tissues from transplanted patients were taken. The aim of the study was to estimate possible homing and engraftment of allogeneic BM-derived MSCs in some tissues/organs of recipient. Sensitive real-time quantitative PCR analysis was applied with SRY gene as a target. MSC chimerism was found in BM, liver, and spleen of both patients. We conclude that sensitive RQ-PCR analysis is acceptable for low-level chimerism evaluation even in paraffin-embedded tissue specimens.