Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

More than 30 years have passed since the first clinical application of allogeneic bone marrow transplantation to treat hematological diseases. In recent years, the availability of peripheral blood and cord blood as additional sources of stem cells other than bone marrow has expanded the applicability of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. In addition to differences in stem cell content, immune cells in the grafts from the three sources are different in quality and quantity. As a consequence, transplants from different sources have different kinetics of hematological recovery. Stem cell sources also influence risks for developing graft-versus-host disease. In this paper, we review recently reported results of thus diversified allogeneic hematopoietic, stem cell transplantation.