Antibody Treatment Of Marrow Graft Invitro - Principle For Prevention Of Gvh Disease

Graft-versus-Host disease (GvHD) is still a frequent complication in clinical marrow transplantation. Advances in immunology have delineated the caual role of thymus-derived (T) lymphocytes in GvH reactions. Attempts have been made to reduce T-cells by treating the bone marrow itself in vitro after preparation. Experimental studies of our group showed hat in mice an in vitro treatment of incompatible sonar cells with T-cell specific antibodies before transplantation could supress an otherwise lethal GvH-reaction completely. The GvH-reactive T-lymphocytes were removed by a specific xenogenic antiserum against T-cells which had been purified from antibodies cross reacting with hemopoietic stem cells by an extensive absorption procedure.