Relevance of Colony Forming Assays to Bone Marrow Transplantation with Particular Reference to Grafting for Aplastic Anaemia

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Abstract
The value of bone marrow colony-forming assays in monitoring transplanted patients was assessed by comparing results from 2 pairs of bone marrow recipients. One pair received marrow from their identical twins for acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The other pair were grafted with allogeneic marrow from their siblings for aplastic anemia. One of each pair showed successful engraftment while in the others the grafts failed. The colony-forming assay was used to investigate marrow function in 5 grafted aplastic patients. Of these, 4 rejected their first grafts and required further immunosuppression before engraftment was accomplished. The remaining patient was immunosuppressed at the outset with antithymocyte globulin (ATG) and her 1st graft was successful. Sera from all 5 patients inhibited colony formation by normal human marrow and this activity was apparently related to graft rejection as well as to the pathogenesis of the condition.