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Objective: Acute lymphoid leukemia (ALL) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) are neoplastic blood disorders in which the cancerous white blood cells accumulate, resulting in a significant morbidity and mortality. Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) association is observed as one of the factors in the development of leukemia. The objective of the present study was to analyze the allele frequency of HLA Class I (HLA-A, HLA-B, and HLA-C) and Class II (HLA-DRB1 and HLA-DQB1) in Indian acute leukemia patients and to compare them with the frequencies in healthy, unrelated Indian individuals. Materials and Methods: We included 500 Indian leukemic patients (AML = 324 and ALL = 176) and 1000 unrelated, healthy, Indian individuals as controls. The HLA typing was performed using polymerase chain reaction with sequence-specific oligonucleotide probes. Results: On univariate analysis, allele frequencies of HLA-AFN*0111 and HLA-DRB1FN*0111 were lower in patients with ALL ( P = 0.0181 and P = 0.0025, respectively). Whereas of HLA-AFN*0111, HLA-DRB1FN*0111, and HLA-BFN*0151, these frequencies were relatively lower in patients with acute leukemia (AML + ALL) ( P = 0.0382, P = 0.0093 and P = 0.0384, respectively) and HLA-CFNx0101 ( P = 0.0304) in AML when compared with control individuals. In contrast, the HLA-BFN*0139 and HLA-CFN*0107 allele frequency was higher in acute leukemia ( P = 0.00372 and P = 0.0463, respectively) and in AML ( P = 0.0010 and P = 0.0178, respectively) than that in controls. On multivariate analysis, BFNx0139 showed positive associations with acute leukemia ( P = 0.006) and AML ( P = 0.002). HLA-AFN*0111 and-DRB1FN*0111 showed a negative association with acute leukemia ( P = 0.009 and P < 0.0001, respectively) and ALL ( P = 0.013 and P < 0.0001, respectively). Conclusions: The HLA-BFN*0139 has a positive association with AML and acute leukemia, whereas HLA-AFN*0111 and HLA-DRB1FN*0111 alleles have negative association with ALL and HLA-BFN*0151 along with these two alleles with acute leukemia. No positive association was observed with ALL. HLA-CFN*0101 frequency was lower in AML patients than that in controls.

Celiac Disease affects 1% of the population in the Western world, however, the number of affected people is rising due to high gluten diets. Celiac disease is caused by a number of things involving interactions between genetic, environmental, and immunological factors. Lack of a comprehensive model to conduct trials on makes treating celiac disease a difficult feat. In terms of clinical trials, low incidence and variability in patients are significant obstacles in the establishment of treatments. Stem cells play a pivotal role in chronic inflammatory pathologies due to their ability to regenerate and differentiate into numerous cell types as well as their essential role in homeostasis. Mesenchymal stem cells are highly proliferating, multipotent stromal cells that can cross the HLAQ barrier and lack immunogenicity. Based on these properties, mesenchymal stem cells are able to maintain the epithelial barrier, prevent villous atrophy, and subdue inflammation in CD patients and have proven to be successful in multiple clinical trials. For this reason, stem cells, primarily mesenchymal, possess the potential to be an effective therapy and should be further researched.

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Introduction Hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) is the definite treatment for acute leukemia but considering HSCT is challenging for the patients. There are many studies that have described the patients’ experience after HSCT but very few studies have reported their experience before going for HSCT and there is no published report in India on patients’ experience before HSCT. Objective We conducted a qualitative study to understand barriers, and support-system while considering HSCT and the chances of getting matched unrelated donor (MUD) for these patients. Materials and Methods The present study was a qualitative study. Demographic details of 514 patients who consented for the study were noted and the patients and their families were interviewed using a semistructured interview booklet before HSCT. The interview sessions were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed for emerging themes. The study data were analyzed using QDA Miner Lite 4.0 software (Provalis Research, Montreal, Canada). Descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentage were used. The chances of getting a human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-matched donor were also computed by “HLA-matching software.” Results Acute myeloid leukemia (64.01%) was commoner than acute lymphoid leukemia (35.99%) with male: female ratio as 1.98:1. The study showed nine themes as barriers and six themes emerged in regard to the support system for HSCT decision making. The biggest barriers identified among these patients pre-HSCT were related to cost, probability of “success of transplant,” and probable “quality of life.” The family support was the biggest support system variable followed by “treating doctor.” The chances of getting a MUD for these patients were 13.22% and 5.44% in global and Indian data pool, respectively. Conclusion Deciding upon HSCT can be challenging for patients and understanding of barriers and support-system variables among these patients would provide important insights and help design better counseling techniques for such patients of HSCT and future studies in this context.