Posted by Mary E. on June 02, 1999 at 15:28:45:
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06/02 3:26P (RT) Marrow transplant breakthrough holds wider promise
Story 6572 (I/HEA, I/US, I/NEWS, I/CHE, I/SCI, I/DRU, RGEN)
Release at 5 p.m. (2100 GMT)
By Leslie Gevirtz
BOSTON, June 2 (Reuters) - A new technique in bone marrow
transplants holds the promise of treatment for a variety of
immune disorders including arthritis, diabetes and multiple
sclerosis, Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine said.
The technique allowed researchers to devise a way to make
the T cells in the donated marrow "tolerant" of the recipients
tissue.
The experimental technique "is really about all sorts of
immune regulation," the study's lead author, Dr. Eva Guinan,
said in an interview from her office at the Dana-Farber Cancer
Institute in Boston.
"It's definitely about heart and kidney and liver
transplants and it may very well be about rheumatoid arthritis,
and multiple sclerosis and diabetes and other things that are
dependent on immune recognition," she said.
The study involved 12 cancer patients, ranging in age from
6 months to 26 years old, who had failed to respond to
chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and earlier bone marrow