MLC test and/or DNA typing in Bone Marrow transplantation

About the effectiveness of MLC test in bone marrow transplantation there are at present intense discussion and controversial opinions. To evaluate that we have correlated the one way MLC response of 40 sibling and 16 unrelated donor-recipient pairs before the transplant, with the matching for HLA antigens and with post-transplant GVHD. The HLA antigens were sierologically performed and the PCR DNA typing for DRbeta, Dqalpha and DPbeta alleles were evaluated. Our results emphasize that, even if can be used more specific tests to evaluate donor-recipeint compatibility, the MLC has a significant role as biological test inthe first selection principally in unrelated donors.