RESEARCH ARTICLE
NK-KIR Gene Repertoire and Outcome of Patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia after Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation from Unrelated Donors
Wilasinee Chainonthee1, *, Martin Bornhäuser1, Monika Füssel2, Gerhard Ehninger1, Ralf Wassmuth1, 2
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2013Volume: 5
First Page: 1
Last Page: 8
Publisher Id: TOCIJ-5-1
DOI: 10.2174/1876401001104010001
Article History:
Received Date: 07/05/2013Revision Received Date: 17/06/2013
Acceptance Date: 13/08/2013
Electronic publication date: 18/10/2013
Collection year: 2013
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
In this retrospective study, the influence of donor and recipient KIR-gene content and their respective ligands including clinical parameters as potential confounding variables on the outcome of 150 acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients undergoing allogenic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) from unrelated donors was systematically investigated. There was no significant influence of KIR ligand mismatching and of donor/recipient KIR haplotype combinations on overall survival (OS), disease free survival (DSF), non-relapse mortality (NRM) and relapse. Isolated effects of KIR haplotypes, were detected for acute, chronic Graft versus Host Disease (aGvHD and cGvHD) as well as for the cumulative incidence of non-relapse mortality and relapse. The incidence of non-relapse mortality was evaluated in donor and recipient pairs harbouring KIR AA homozygosity (AA/Bx: p=0.038, HR=0.73, 95% CI=0.35-1.46 and AA/AA: p=0.043, HR=0.64, 95% CI 0.53-1-17). Our data suggest that KIR genotyping may be useful in patients in whom several HLAidentical unrelated donors can be identified but is probably not necessary for the primary donor selection algorithm.