Abstract:

Objective To investigate hematopoietic reconstruction of nonmyeloablative receptors after a new strategy of bone marrow transplantation ⁃ vascularized bone marrow transplantation（VBMT）containing both bone marrow cells and its own stromal microenvironment. Methods Vascularized femur as a carrier of BMCs was transplanted into irradiated（5 Gy）syngeneic Lewis rats. Routine blood tests，spleen index measurement，bone marrow count，flow cytometry and histopathological examination were used to assess hematopoietic potentialof the receptor. The same amount of BMCs suspensionor saline was injected intravenouslyto use as a positive or negative control group. Results Ascompared with the negative control group，both VBMT and intravenous BMT accelerated the recovery of leukocytes and platelets and had a higher spleen index（P < 0.05）. Numerous lymphocytes and lymphatic nodule were seen in the spleen section in spite of obscure boundary betweenthe white and the red pulp. Histological appearances of bone marrow also showed scattered BMCs，but the bone marrow was almostreplaced by vacuolar tissuesin the control group. The number of BMCs was a magnitude lower in the control group than in the VBMT and intravenous BMT groups. However there were no significant differences between VBMT and intravenous BMT in the above results. Conclusions Vascularized bone marrow transplantation accelerates reconstruction of partialhematopoietic systeminnonmyeloablative receptors andcan be used as a new transplantation of bone marrow.

Key words:

vascularized bone marrow transplantation, hematopoietic reconstruction, hematopoietic microenvironment, bone marrow transplantation, vascularized composite allograft