Autologous stem-cell transplantation in refractory autoimmune diseases after in vivo immunoablation and ex vivo depletion of mononuclear cells

Refractory autoimmune diseases cause a high degree of morbidity and even mortality, although they are not considered to be malignant diseases. During treatment with conventional and experimental immunosuppression, patients can experience treatment-related morbidity without significant gain in quality of life. Autologous SCT is a novel experimental approach for treating patients with refractory autoimmune diseases [ 1 ]. Worldwide, 74 patients with severe autoimmune disease have thus far been treated in 22 centres [ 2 ]. Of these 74 patients, 38 received autologous SCT for treatment of rheumatic autoimmune diseases.