Co-culture studies in transfused and untransfused patients with aplastic anemia.

Co-culture studies have two potential values: (1) In untransfused patients with AA they may be able to detect the small population of patients who have immunologically mediated disease and who therefore may respond to immunosuppressive therapy; (2) In transfused AA patients under consideration for allogenic marrow transplantation, inhibition in the coculture assay may indicate sensitization to minor histocompatibility antigens. Preliminary data indicates that this test may be more sensitive than the chromium release assay and should be added to a battery of prospective in vitro tests designed to detect those patients at risk for marrow graft rejection.