Cell Subset-Specific Chimerism Testing by Short Tandem Repeats Analysis for Engraftment Monitoring After Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation.

Chimerism is the unique state when cells from genetically different individuals coexist. Chimerism testing allows measuring the donor and recipient immune cell subsets in recipient blood and bone marrow following stem cell transplantation. Chimerism testing is the standard diagnostic test for monitoring engraftment dynamics and early relapse prediction in the recipient following stem cell transplantation. Chimerism testing is also helpful to detect graft-versus-host disease following liver transplantation. Herein, we describe a step-by-step procedure of an in-house-developed method assessing chimerism levels using fragment length analysis of short tandem repeats.

Immune Cell Lineage-Specific Chimerism Testing by Next-Generation Sequencing for Engraftment Monitoring After Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation.

Chimerism is an unusual state in which a person's body comprises cells from genetically different people. Chimerism testing allows monitoring for the relative proportion of recipient and donor-derived cell subsets in recipient blood and bone marrow. In the bone marrow transplant setting, chimerism testing is the standard diagnostic tool for early detection of graft rejection and the risk of malignant disease relapse. Chimerism testing enables the identification of patients with increased risk for recurrence of the underlying disease. Herein, we describe a step-by-step technical procedure of a novel, commercially available, next-generation sequencing-based chimerism testing method for use in the clinical laboratory.