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Department of Cell Chimerism

The department is integrated into the Complement of Laboratories of the Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion. It continuously fulfills the requirements for quality and competence in medical laboratories according to the ČSN EN ISO 15189 standard, the application is verified by the Czech Institute for Accreditation. The test methods within the scope of accreditation are defined by the Annex to the Certificate of Accreditation in the current version, which is available on the IHBT website.

The basic focus of the department is the monitoring of cell chimerism by genotyping and quantification of variable polymorphisms of the Short Tandem Repeats (STR) by PCR and fragment analysis, as well as quantitative real-time PCR of short insertions and deletions (indels). The examination is initially performed in patients and their donors indicated for allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, followed by long-term follow-up of the patient´s post-transplantation course, where the testing helps to determine the dynamics of engraftment and to detect reappearance of the patient´s hematopoiesis, which may indicate the return of the primary malignant disease.  If a relapse of the disease occurs during haploidentical transplantation, the department offers to determine whether it is a classical relapse or an HLA-loss relapse, in order to correctly establish the subsequent treatment strategy. The laboratory also analyses extramural samples from patients after organ transplantation to determine the proportion of hematopoiesis from the organ donor.

The Department of Cell Chimerism is part of the National Reference Laboratory for DNA Diagnostics. It organizes external proficiency testing and offers consultancy services.

The staff is bound by confidentiality according to the Health Services Act, 372/2011 Coll.

Confidence and high data security are among the basic priorities within the activities of the Complement of Laboratories of the IHBT. The established procedures are carried out in accordance with the Act on the Processing of Personal Data 110/2019 Coll. and Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of physical persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC. More information is available on the IHBT website.