Non-HLA barriers to unrelated donor stem cell transplantation.

A prospective survey involving 544 searches of the US National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) Registry was conducted to identify reasons why many patients who have apparent HLA-matched donors do not proceed to transplant. Coordinators at NMDP transplant centers, patients and referring physicians were surveyed shortly after the initial search, and follow-up surveys were sent to the coordinators as the search was ongoing. The death of the patient, worsening of the patient's medical condition and length of the search process were the most commonly cited barriers to transplantation.

Infusions of interleukin-1 alpha after autologous transplantation for Hodgkin's disease and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma induce effector cells with antilymphoma cytolytic activity.

We evaluated the cytolytic function, phenotypic characteristics, and cytokine levels of 22 patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and 7 with Hodgkin's disease receiving interleukin-1 alpha (IL-1 alpha) following autologous bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cell transplantation. IL-1 alpha was given i.v.

Cytokines in liposomes: preliminary studies with IL-1, IL-2, IL-6, GM-CSF and interferon-gamma.

A simple, generally applicable method to incorporate cytokine proteins into multilamellar liposomes is presented. A variety of human cytokines including granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF), interleukins 1 alpha, 2 and 6 (IL-1 alpha, IL-2, IL-6) and interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) were incorporated into liposomes containing a single saturated synthetic lipid, dimyristoyl phosphatidyl choline (DMPC). Sterile cytokine liposomes were produced by gamma irradiation of DMPC lipid powder prior to use in cytokine liposome synthesis.