The role of chimerism monitoring following HSCT

In this paper Dr. Dan Hauzenberger, Medical Director of the Section for Transplantation Immunology at Karolinska University Hospital and Chief Medical Officer at Devyser explains that, monitoring for mixed chimerism in patients after HSCT has in several studies been shown to be of
clinical importance. The main purpose of the assay is
to verify engraftment and subsequently monitor for
the presence of MRD and potentially early detection
of possible relapse.

• it is important to use an assay that offers high precision and sufficient
  sensitivity since it is important to monitor for increased amounts of host DNA even at low levels.
• Frequent sampling is an advantage to monitor the dynamics of MC
  especially if the center is interested in microchimerism as a diagnostic tool for MRD detection.
• Chimerism analysis in DNA from cell-sorted samples may be preferred over total DNA to reduce noise from DNA of non-relevant blood cells.