2015-09-06
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San Francisco. A pioneering experiment involving the first-ever transplantation of bone marrow into a human being is proceeding well, according to researchers from the University of California at San Francisco and the University of Pittsburgh.
Last week, J.Getty, a 38-year-old AIDS patient, received baboon bone marrow, in the hope that a mixture of baboon and human marrow could help to reconstitute his damaged immune system. Baboons are not susceptible to HIV, and, if experiment is successful, the chimaeric bone marrow will begin producing immune system cells resistant to the virus.
Several days after the transplant, Getty was reported to be doing well. But doctors said he would remain vulnerable to neutropenia – a decrease in the number of neutrophilic leukocytes in the blood – and opportunistic infections for several weeks.
Researchers should be able to measure how well the baboon cells have taken in about four weeks, but doubt they will see any immune reconstitution in under six months.
The protocol for the experiment had been given strict scrutiny by federal authorities, partly because of concern that the introduction of baboon cells into a human might trigger the development of new viruses. S.Ildstad, a researcher involved in the experiment, said that monitoring for such organisms has already begun, with samples being collected weekly for examination by collaborators throughout the world.
Formal guidelines for xenotransplantation are being developed by the Food and Drug Administration and the Centres for Disease Control. Ildstad praised Getty’s brevity and said many patients might ultimately benefit.
