Hematopoietic precursors cell transplants for autoimmunes diseases

High dose therapy with autologus stem cell transplantation for auto-immune disease resistant to conventional therapy appear to be warranted. It is used for systemic sclerosis, vasculitides, systemic lupus erythematosus, myositis and auto-immune cytopenia. Comparison of various conditioning regimens indicates that a combination conditioning with low-dose total body irradiation and high-dose cyclophosphamide is optimal. First results are good but further studies are needed to evaluate this protocol