Infantile T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia complicated by thrombotic microangiopathy and human herpes virus 6 infection after allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation using CD34-positive cells]

We report on a 19-month-old boy with refractory T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia who underwent allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation using positively selected CD34 cells from his HLA two-loci mismatched mother. The conditioning regimen consisted of busulfan (140 mg/m2/d for 2 days), total body irradiation (12 Gy) and melphalan (210 mg/m2). The patient received cyclosporin A for graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis. The CD34-positive cells were separated using an immunomagnetic cell-separation system (Isolex 50). The number of infused CD34-positive cells was 4.4 x 10(6)/kg. Successful engraftment was confirmed on day 14 by fluorescent in situ hybridization of X chromosomes. The patient experienced severe diarrhea due to thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA) following acute GVHD, and died on day 71 of human herpes virus type 6 pneumonitis. Stem cell transplantation using CD34 positively selected cells from HLA-mismatched related donors may be a useful treatment with low incidence of severe GVHD, but many problems remain to be overcome, including severe viral infections and TMA.