Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a severe, potentially life-threatening disease. Although treatments with glucocorticoids and immunodepressants following the Guidelines of American College of Rheumatology (ACR) or KDIGO (Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes) have brought relief to SLE patients, some patients fail for refractory to conventional immunosuppressive treatment or other reasons.

Over the past 20 years, stem cell transplantation (SCT) has emerged as a therapy for refractory autoimmune rheumatologic diseases, which may arrest the autoimmune disease process and lead to sustained remissions. Since the first consensus statement in 19971, approximately 200 cases of autologous bone marrow or hematopoietic SCT have been reported worldwide for patients with severe SLE refractory to conventional immunosuppressive treatment, and the results showed that hematopoietic SCT can achieve sustained clinical remissions (ranging from 50% to 70% disease-free survival at 5 years) associated with immunological changes that were not seen with other forms of treatments2.

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