[Immunological selection of bone marrow donors].

In the last twenty years bone marrow transplantation has become the treatment of choice for many hematological malignancies and immunologic defects. The ideal donor is a perfectly HLA-identical family member. Given the limited proportion of patients who can benefit of such a donor, unrelated bone marrow donors are increasingly being used. The immunological methods of selection used for siblings have been shown to be inadequate for the new type of donors. New techniques of molecular biology detecting a new micropolymorphism have been developed. This paper discusses the techniques and interpretations of the immunological tests of selection.