Research Paper

Utility of saliva and hair follicles in donor selection for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and chimerism monitoring

Volume 3, Issue 1   January/February/March 2012
Pages 9 - 17
http://dx.doi.org/10.4161/chim.19395
Keywords: DNA, HLA, chimerism, hair, saliva, transplantation
Authors: Gurvinder Kaur, Neeraj Kumar, Ramya Nandakumar, Chowphi C. Rapthap, Gaurav Sharma, Shekhar Neolia, Heena Kumra, Prateek Mahalwar, Abhinav Garg, Sunil Kumar, Jasmeet Kaur, Mrinali Hakim, Lalit Kumar and Narinder K. Mehra

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Abstract:
Selection of an HLA identical donor is a critical pre-requisite for successful hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Most transplant centers utilize blood as the most common source of DNA for HLA testing. However, obtaining blood through phlebotomy is often challenging in patients with conditions like severe leucopenia or hemophilia, pediatric and elderly patients. We have used a simple in-house protocol and shown that HLA genotypes obtained on DNA extracted from saliva or hair are concordant with blood and hence can be used for selection of donors for HSCT or organ transplantation. Similarly, for post-HSCT chimerism monitoring, non-availability of pre-transplant DNA samples poses a major limitation of reference STR fingerprints. This study shows that DNA obtained post-HSCT from hair follicles can be used to generate pre-transplant patient specific fingerprints while the STR profiles obtained in saliva samples cannot as these display a mixed state of chimerism.

Received: November 25, 2011; Accepted: January 17, 2012

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