After the hematopoietic progenitor cell transplantation, all receptors experience a period of profound neutropenia and immunodeficiency that is responsible for a significant number of the serious infectious complications that can occur after a transplant. Due to the intensive regimen of pre-transplant conditioning, both cellular and humoral responses are greatly affected. Immune reconstitution is an important component of successful bone marrow transplantation, not only because immune defects are related to infectious post-transplant morbidity, but also because they may influence the risk of relapse and the development of secondary malignancies after transplantation. This study gives a revision about the primary variables involved in immunologic reconstitution, after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation: a lack of sustained transference of donor antigen-specific immunity, a deficiency in the lymphoid ontogeny reconstitution, histocompatibility differences between donor and receptor, the effect of GVHD and its therapy, and decreased thymic function of the receptor.
Immune reconstitution; bone marrow transplantation; vaccination