Adoptive precursor cell therapy to enhance immune reconstitution after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

Overview

Strategies to enhance post-transplant immune reconstitution without aggravating graft-vs-host disease (GVHD) can improve the outcome of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Recent preclinical studies demonstrated that the use of T cell depleted allografts supplemented with committed progenitor cells (vs stem cells only) allows enhanced immune reconstitution of specific hematopoietic lineages including myeloid, B, T, and natural killer lineages in the absence of GVHD. This novel adoptive therapy resulted in significantly improved resistance to microbial pathogens and could, in some cases, even mediate tumor immunity. Clinical protocols using adoptive transfer of committed hematopoietic progenitor cells are currently being evaluated.