Selection of donor-recipient pairs in families for allogenic bone marrow transplantation

In the years 1985-1999 452 were families investigated with the aim to find up an HLA-identical sibling for a patient suffering from a disease, the treatment of which requires bone marrow transplantation. Total number of investigated siblings (including patients) was 1334. HLA typing was done by serological methods, mixed lymphocyte culture test (MLC), and in the last three years also by DNA-typing (PCR-SSP). 188 HLA identical donor-recipient sib-pairs were found. At the same time the number shows that a potential donor could be found in 41.5% of investigated families.