ABSTRACT
Autologous bone marrow transplantation was introduced for the treatment of severe intractable autoimmune disease (AD) following the demonstration that impressive responses could be obtained with this modality in two different animal models: adjuvant arthritis (AA) and experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). The exploration of autologous stem cell grafts for treating these diseases was by no means rational, considering the prevailing view that experimental AD are stem cell associated diseases and as a consequence are expected to be curable only with allogeneic bone marrow grafts from resistant donors.
