Reversal of severe bone marrow fibrosis and osteosclerosis following allogeneic bone marrow transplantation for chronic granulocytic leukaemia.

Severe marrow fibrosis and osteosclerosis gradually disappeared after a 33-year-old woman received an allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT) as experimental treatment for chronic granulocytic leukaemia. Serial biopsies demonstrate gradual resolution of dense reticulin fibrosis, collagen fibrosis and osteosclerosis, and restoration of normal marrow architecture after transplantation. These changes correspond with histological and cytogenetic evidence of normal marrow engraftment and sustained complete remission from chronic granulocytic leukaemia. In this case severe marrow infiltration with reticulin and collagen fibrosis as well as severe derangement of marrow architecture and obliteration of the medullary cavity by osteosclerosis was an entirely reversible process after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation, and did not prevent successful engraftment, haemopoietic and cytogenetic reconstitution and complete remission from chronic granulocytic leukaemia.