# Densitometry of STR-PAGE for donor chimerism in acute leukemia’s: A simple method for routine use

## TL;DR

This study shows that a simple and cost-effective method using gel electrophoresis and densitometry can effectively monitor donor chimerism in acute leukemia patients after stem cell transplants.

## Contribution

The study introduces a practical and affordable densitometry-based method for routine donor chimerism monitoring in acute leukemia patients.

## Key findings

- Densitometry of STR-PCR PAGE accurately detected donor chimerism in all post-transplant patient samples.
- The method is cost-effective and suitable for routine use in monitoring chimerism after HSCT.
- Early detection through this method can help prevent graft failure in acute leukemia patients.

## Abstract

To evaluate a PCR based method of polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of short tandem repeats and its quantification for detecting donor chimerism after haematopoietic stem cell transplantation in acute leukaemias.

The descriptive study was conducted at Genetic Resource Centre (GRC) Lab Rawalpindi from Feb 2018 - Nov 2020. A total of twenty patients with acute leukaemias having undergone HSCT were selected and assessed for the analysis of chimerism status. DNA extraction from the whole blood was done by chelex method and short tandem repeats were amplified by using conventional STR- PCR assay. Electrophoresis was carried out and 6% polyacrylamide gels were used for the resultant amplified DNA products and then followed by their densitometry. These patients had undergone HSCT from Pakistan Institute of Medical Science and Armed Forces Bone Marrow Transplant Centre.

The peaks in the PAGE densitometry represented the donor chimerism in all post transplant samples of the patients.

Our study showed that densitometry of STR PCR PAGE is a useful and cheaper method for demonstration of donor chimerism in acute leukaemia patients having undergone HSCT. Hence this method can be a valuable option in the monitoring of chimerism status in these patients and therefore helps in preventing graft failure by fast and early treatment strategies for these patients.