BACKGROUND: Delayed platelet engraftment is a common complication after umbilical cord blood transplantation (UCBT), and there is no standard therapy. Avatrombopag (AVA) is a second-generation thrombopoietin (TPO) receptor agonist (TPO-RA) that has shown efficacy in immune thrombocytopenia (ITP). However, few reports have focused on its efficacy in patients diagnosed with thrombocytopenia after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). METHODS: We conducted a retrospective study at the First Affiliated Hospital of the University of Science and Technology of China to evaluate the efficacy of AVA as a first-line TPO-RA in 65 patients after UCBT; these patients were compared with 118 historical controls. Response rates, platelet counts, megakaryocyte counts in bone marrow, bleeding events, adverse events and survival rates were evaluated in this study. Platelet reconstitution differences were compared between different medication groups. Multivariable analysis was used to explore the independent beneficial factors for platelet implantation. RESULTS: Fifty-two patients were given AVA within 30 days post-UCBT, and the treatment was continued for more than 7 days to promote platelet engraftment (AVA group); the other 13 patients were given AVA for secondary failure of platelet recovery (SFPR group). The median time to platelet engraftment was shorter in the AVA group than in the historical control group (32.5 days vs . 38.0 days, Z  = 2.095, P  = 0.036). Among the 52 patients in the AVA group, 46 achieved an overall response (OR) (88.5%), and the cumulative incidence of OR was 91.9%. Patients treated with AVA only had a greater 60-day cumulative incidence of platelet engraftment than patients treated with recombinant human thrombopoietin (rhTPO) only or rhTPO combined with AVA (95.2% vs . 84.5% vs . 80.6%, P  <0.001). Patients suffering from SFPR had a slightly better cumulative incidence of OR (100%, P  = 0.104). Patients who initiated AVA treatment within 14 days post-UCBT had a better 60-day cumulative incidence of platelet engraftment than did those who received AVA after 14 days post-UCBT (96.6% vs . 73.9%, P  = 0.003). CONCLUSION Compared with those in the historical control group, our results indicate that AVA could effectively promote platelet engraftment and recovery after UCBT, especially when used in the early period (≤14 days post-UCBT).
Humans ; Female ; Male ; Thrombocytopenia/etiology* ; Adult ; Retrospective Studies ; Cord Blood Stem Cell Transplantation/adverse effects* ; Middle Aged ; Adolescent ; Young Adult ; Thiazoles/adverse effects* ; Platelet Count ; Receptors, Thrombopoietin/agonists* ; Child ; Thiophenes

Humans ; Fetal Blood ; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation ; Transplantation, Homologous ; Anemia ; Cord Blood Stem Cell Transplantation/methods* ; Graft vs Host Disease

Child ; Cord Blood Stem Cell Transplantation ; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation ; Humans ; Primary Myelofibrosis/therapy* ; Thiotepa ; Transplantation Conditioning

Objective: To investigate the risk factors and outcomes of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection post umbilical cord blood stem cell transplantation (UCBT) in children with primary immunodeficiency diseases (PID). Methods: Clinical data of 143 PID children who received UCBT in the Children's Hospital of Fudan University from January 2015 to June 2020 were collected retrospectively. CMV-DNA in the plasma was surveilled once or twice a week within 100 days post-UCBT. According to the CMV-DNA test results, children were divided into the CMV-infected group and the CMV-uninfected group. The incidence and risk factors of CMV infection were analyzed. At 1-month post-UCBT, the absolute lymphocyte count, ratio of lymphocyte subsets and immunoglobulin levels were compared between those whose CMV infection developed 1-month later post-UCBT and those not. Mann-Whitney U test and chi-squared test were used for comparision between groups. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was used to analyze the impact of CMV infection on survival. Results: Among 143 patients, there were 113 males and 30 females, with a age of 14 (8, 27) months at UCBT. Chronic granulomatosis disease (n=49), very-early-onset inflammatory bowel disease (n=43) and severe combined immunodefiency (n=29) were the three main kinds of PID. The rate of CMV infection was 21.7% (31/143), and the time of infection occurring was 44 (31, 49) days post-UCBT. The incidence of recurrent CMV infection was 4.2% (6/143) and refractory CMV infection was 4.9% (7/143).There was no significant difference in the first time CMV-DNA copy and peak CMV-DNA copy during treatment between the recurrent CMV infection group and the non-recurrent CMV infection group (32.8 (18.3, 63.1)×10⁶ vs. 22.5 (13.2, 31.9)×10⁶ copies/L, Z=-0.95, P=0.340;35.2 (20.2, 54.6)×10⁶ vs. 28.4 (24.1, 53.5)×10⁶copies/L, Z=-0.10, P=0.920), so were those between the refractory CMV infection group and non-refractory CMV infection group (21.8 (13.1, 32.2)×10⁶ vs. 25.9 (14.2, 12.2)×10⁶copies/L, Z=-1.04, P=0.299; 47.7 (27.9, 77.6)×10⁶ vs. 27.7 (19.7,51.8)×10⁶copies/L, Z=-1.49, P =0.137). The CMV-infected group accepted more reduced-intensity conditioning (RIC) regimen than the CMV-uninfected group (45.2% (14/31) vs. 25.0% (28/112), χ²=4.76, P<0.05). The rate of CMV-seropositive recipients and Ⅱ-Ⅳ acute graft versus host diseases (aGVHD) are significantly higher in the CMV-infected group than the CMV-uninfected group (100% (31/31) vs. 78.6% (88/112), 64.5% (20/31) vs. 26.8% (30/112), χ²=7.98,15.20, both P<0.05). The follow-up time was 31.6 (13.2, 45.9) months, CMV infection had no effect on overall survival (OS) rate (χ²=0.02, P=0.843). There was significant difference in the survival rate among three groups of refractory CMV infection, non-refractory CMV infection and the CMV-uninfected (4/7 vs.95.8% (23/24) vs. 86.6% (97/112), χ²=5.91, P=0.037), while there was no significant difference in the survival rate among three groups of recurrent CMV infection, non-recurrent CMV infection and the CMV-uninfected (5/6 vs. 88.0% (22/25) vs. 86.6% (97/112), χ²=0.43, P=0.896). Children who developed CMV infection after 30 days post-UCBT had lower absolute count and rate of CD4⁺ T cells and immunoglobulin G (IgG) level than those in the CMV-uninfected group (124.1 (81.5, 167.6) ×10⁶ vs. 175.5 (108.3, 257.2) ×10⁶/L, 0.240 (0.164, 0.404) vs. 0.376 (0.222, 0.469), 9.3 (6.2, 14.7) vs. 13.6 (10.7, 16.4) g/L, Z=-2.48, -2.12,-2.47, all P<0.05), but have higher rate of CD8⁺T cells than those in CMV-uninfected group (0.418 (0.281, 0.624) vs. 0.249 (0.154, 0.434), Z=-2.56, P=0.010). Conclusions: RIC regimen, grade Ⅱ-Ⅳ aGVHD and CMV-seropositive recipients are the main risk factors associated with CMV infection in PID patients post-UCBT. Survival rate of children with refractory CMV infection after UCBT is reduced. Immune reconstitution in children after UCBT should be regularly monitored, and frequency of CMV-DNA monitoring should be increased for children with delayed immune reconstitution.
Child ; Cord Blood Stem Cell Transplantation/adverse effects* ; Cytomegalovirus ; Cytomegalovirus Infections/etiology* ; DNA ; Female ; Graft vs Host Disease/etiology* ; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation/adverse effects* ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin G ; Infant ; Male ; Primary Immunodeficiency Diseases ; Prognosis ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors

OBJECTIVE: To study the association of different maternal and infant factors with the number of total nucleated cells and CD34 METHODS: A prospective study was performed for the umbilical cord blood samples of 130 neonates who were born in Dalian Women and Children's Medical Center from June 2019 to January 2020, with a male/female ratio of 1:1. Related perinatal information was collected, including maternal age and blood type, presence or absence of gestational diabetes or gestational hypertension, pregnancy method, mode of delivery, singleton pregnancy/twin pregnancy, body weight and sex of neonates, Apgar score after birth, and the conditions of placenta, amniotic fluid, and umbilical cord. RESULTS: The neonates were grouped according to maternal blood type, gestational diabetes, gestational hypertension, pregnancy method, mode of delivery, singleton pregnancy/ twin pregnancy, sex of neonates, Apgar score after birth, placental morphology, meconium staining of amniotic fluid, and umbilical cord around the neck. The comparison between groups showed no significant differences in the numbers of total nucleated cells and CD34 CONCLUSIONS The number of CD34
Antigens, CD34 ; Female ; Fetal Blood ; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation ; Hematopoietic Stem Cells ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Male ; Pregnancy ; Prospective Studies ; Umbilical Cord

OBJECTIVE: To explore the clinical efficacy and safety of unrelated umbilical cord blood transplantation (UCBT) in the treatment of Juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML). METHODS: The clinical data of 5 children with JMML who were treated with unrelated UCBT from October 2011 to July 2019 were retrospectively analyzed. The age of onset for the five children (male) ranged from 0.4 to 5.0 years old, with a median age of 1.5 years old. All the patients received myeloablative conditioning regimen without ATG to whom cyclosporine A (CsA) with short-term mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) was given for GVHD prophylaxis. RESULTS: Four children acquired engraftment. One patient received secondary haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation because of the failure in the first unrelated UCBT. Grade Ⅲ to Ⅳ aGVHD occurred in 2 cases and was controlled, and none of the patients developed cGVHD. Three cases achieved long-time disease free survival，and no patient relapsed. CONCLUSION UCBT is an effective treatment for children with JMML.
Child ; Child, Preschool ; Cord Blood Stem Cell Transplantation ; Graft vs Host Disease ; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation ; Humans ; Infant ; Leukemia, Myelomonocytic, Juvenile ; Male ; Retrospective Studies ; Transplantation Conditioning

Abstract　　Umbilical cord blood (UCB) is an alternative source of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) for patients who were lack of HLA match related or unrelated donors. Compared with bone marrow and mobilized peripheral blood, UCB has the advantages of easy availability, safety for donors, and low requirement for HLA match between donors and recipients. However, the cell amount in UCB is relatively less, which was associated with increased graft failure, delayed hematologic recovery, immune reconstitution, and higher transplant related mortality after UCB transplantation (UCBT). Double-unit UCB is a straightforward method to augment cell amount in UCB. Compared with single-unit UCBT, double-unit CBT associated with less risk of primary disease relapse and increased incidence rate of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), but the hematologic recovery and overall survival of recipients were no significantly difference between single and double-unit UCBT. Novel strategies for UCB expansion significantly increased the cell amount in UCB, single-unit expanded UCBT not only increased the sources of UCB, but also decreased the high cost of double-unit UCB. ATG can decrease the risk of graft failure and GVHD rate, but the role of ATG in UCBT is still controversial. Herein, the recent clinical advances on UCBT in the treatment of hematologic diseases are systematically reviewed.
Cord Blood Stem Cell Transplantation ; Graft vs Host Disease ; Hematologic Diseases ; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation ; Humans ; Unrelated Donors

Objective: To explore the impact of the natural killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptor/human leukocyte antigen (KIR/HLA) receptor-ligand model in single unrelated cord blood transplantation (sUCBT) . Methods: Between July 2012 and June 2018, 270 patients with malignant hematologic diseases receiving single-unit UCBT were divided into two groups. Group 1 (n=174) patients lacked a C-ligand for inhibitory KIR on UCB NK cells (patients homozygous C1/C1 or C2/C2) . Group 2 (n=96) patients expressed both C ligands for inhibitory KIR in the receptor (patients heterozygous C1/C2) . Results: A total of 270 patients (146 males, 124 females) with a median age of 13 years (1-62) were included in this retrospective study. All patients received a myeloablative conditioning regimen (without ATG) . The ratio of neutrophil engraftment for group 1 and 2 were both 98.9%, the median time of neutrophil engraftment for group 1 and 2 was 16 (10-41) days vs 17 (11-33) days (P=0.705) . The ratio of platelet engraftment was 88.5% for group 1 and 87.5% for group 2, the median time of platelet engraftment was 35 (11-113) days vs 38.5 (13-96) days (P=0.317) . The cumulative incidence of Ⅱ-Ⅳ acute GVHD in 100 days was 38.7% (95%CI 31.4%-45.9%) for group 1 and 50.0% (95%CI 39.6%-59.6%) for group 2 (P=0.075) , but multivariate analysis showed that HLA-C ligand absence was an independent protective factor for Ⅱ-Ⅳ acute GVHD after transplantation (P=0.036) . Patients in absence of a C-ligand for inhibitory KIRs (Group 1) showed a lower relapse rate than patients with both C-ligands (group 2) : 17.7% (95%CI 11.7%-24.9%) vs 22.7% (95%CI 4.4%-32.2%) after 3 years (P=0.288) . The median follow-up time was 742 (335-2 512) days. The 3-year OS was 72.1% for group 1 and 60.5% for group 2 (P=0.079) . There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in 3-year disease-free survival [64.9% (95%CI 56.2%-72.3%) vs 55.4% (95%CI 44.4%-65.0%) (χ(2)=3.027, P=0.082) ]. Non-relapse mortality for group 1 was 12.1% (95%CI 7.7%-17.4%) and for group 2 was 16.7% (95%CI 10.0%-24.8%) (P=0.328) . Conclusion: Patients lacking a KIR-ligand of HLA group C1 or C2 had a lower incidence of grades Ⅱ-Ⅳ acute GVHD after sUCBT.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Cord Blood Stem Cell Transplantation ; Female ; Graft vs Host Disease ; HLA Antigens ; Hematologic Neoplasms/therapy* ; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation ; Humans ; Infant ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Recurrence, Local ; Receptors, KIR ; Retrospective Studies ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of cytomegalovirus (CMV) DNA load on immune reconstitution and clinical outcomes of patients after unrelated cord blood transplantation (UCBT). METHODS: Eight-color flow cytometry was used to dynamically monitor the changes of peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets of 41 patients at one year after UCBT, and 10 healthy volunteers were enroled as controls. Patients were divided into two groups according to the DNA load of CMV (DNA copies <1000/ml and DNA copies ≥1000/ml). Comparative analyse of the effect of CMV DNA load on lymphocyte subsets and transplantation outcomes were carried out after transplantation. RESULTS: The high CMV DNA load group showed a faster and expanded T cell reconstitution, and the differences between the two groups were statistically significant at one and nine months after transplantation (0.38×10 /L vs 0.25×10 /L, P=0.015 and 2.53×10 /L vs 1.36×10 /L, P=0.006, respectively). Further analysis of T cell subsets suggested that CD8 T cells presented a higher and faster recovery in the high DNA load group, and the differences between the two groups were statistically significant at one and nine months after transplantation (0.20×10 /L vs 0.10×10 /L, P=0.038 and 1.62×10 /L vs 0.68×10 /L, P=0.003, respectively). In addition, there were no significant differences in levels of B cells, regulatory B cells and NK cells between the two groups. Outcomes after one- and a-half-year transplantation showed that there were no significant difference in relapse, non-relapse mortality and overall survival between the high and the low DNA load groups (7.7% vs 7.5%) (P=0.900) (15.4% vs 21.4%) (P=0.686) and (76.9% vs 78.6%) (P=0.889) respectively. CONCLUSION The high CMV DNA load induces a faster and long-lasting expansion of T cells, mainly as the expansion of CD8 T cells after UCBT. Besides, under the current pre-emptive treatment of CMV, the high CMV DNA load does not affect the early survival of patients with acute myeloid leukemia after UCBT.
CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes ; Cord Blood Stem Cell Transplantation ; Cytomegalovirus ; DNA ; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation ; Humans ; Immune Reconstitution

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the clinical outcomes of engraftment, graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and survival in the patients with AML1-ETO positive acute myeloid leukemia (AML) treated with unrelated umbilical cord blood transplantation (UCBT). METHODS: Forty-Five patients with high-risk refractory AML1-ETO positive AML were treated with a single UCBT in a single center from July 2010 to April 2018. All the patients underwent a myeloablative preconditioning regimen，and cyclosporine A (CSA) combined with mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) was used to prevent GVHD. RESULTS: The median value of total nucleated cells (TNC) in cord blood was 5.21 (1.96-12.68)×10/kg recipient body weight, and that of CD34+ cells was 5.61 (0.56-15.4)×10/kg recipient weight. The implantation rate of neutrophil at 42 d and that of platelet at 120 d were 95.6% and 86.7%, respectively. The median time of absolute neutrophil count (ANC)＞0.5×10/L and platelet 20×10/L were 16 (12-18) d and 37 (17-140) d after transplantation, respectively. The cumulative incidence of Ⅰ -Ⅳ grade acute GVHD (aGVHD) at 100 d after transplantation was 48.9% (95% CI 33.5%-62.6%), Ⅱ-Ⅳ grade aGVHD occurred in 12 cases (33.3%) (95% CI 20%-47.2%) , and Ⅲ-Ⅳ grade a GVHD in 8 cases (20%) (95% CI 9.8% -32.8%). In 5 cases of 40 patients survived over 100 days, the chronic GVHD (cGVHD) occurred after transplantation, among which 4 were localized, and 1 was extensive. 3 patients relapsed, and the 2-year cumulative relapse rate was 9.5% (95% CI 2.4%-22.8%). The median follow-up time was 23.5 (0.9-89.67) months, 10 patients died, 2-year disease-free survival rate (DFS) was 72.7%, and overall survival rate (OS) was 75.5%. Multivariate analysis showed that Ⅲ-Ⅳ. acute GVHD (aGVHD) affected overall survival. CONCLUSION UCBT is an effective rescue treatment for patients with high-risk refractory AML1-ETO positive AML.
Cord Blood Stem Cell Transplantation ; Core Binding Factor Alpha 2 Subunit ; Graft vs Host Disease ; Humans ; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute ; Mycophenolic Acid ; Oncogene Proteins, Fusion ; Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Transplantation ; RUNX1 Translocation Partner 1 Protein ; Transplantation Conditioning