Documentation of Engraftment and Chimerism After HCT

It is of central interest to document that the newly developing hematopoiesis post-transplant is of donor or recipient origin. The investigations of the genotype origin of post-transplant hematopoiesis are called chimerism analysis. The term “chimerism” was first introduced into medicine in 1951. Andresen wrote that an organism with cells from two or more distinct zygote lineages is a “chimera.” Since 1956, this term was used in field of transplantation (Ford et al. Nature 177:452–4, 1956). Chimera refers itself to the Greek mythology where Homer described a fire-spitting monster with the head of a lion, a tail of a serpent, and the body of a goat terrorizing Lycia, a region in Minor Asia.