Since 2019, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has become a global issue due to its high fatality rate. Over time, the characteristics of the virus have evolved and led to the creation of an omicron strain with higher infectivity but a significantly decreased fatality rate. For patients in urgent need of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), whether the SARS-CoV-2 infection status of donors has a significant impact on HSCT recipients should be clarified.

To estimate the transplantation risk of SARS-CoV-2-positive donors, 24 patients who underwent HSCT from December 1, 2022, to January 30, 2023, were retrospectively included. The ratio of the observation group (SARS-CoV-2-positive donors, n=12) to the control group (SARS-CoV-2-negative donors, n=12) was 1:1. We observed the time of hematopoietic reconstruction, donor chimerism, severe infection, acute graft versus host disease (aGVHD) and hepatic vein occlusion disease (VOD) during hematopoietic reconstruction.

In the observation group, the average time of myeloid hematopoietic reconstruction was 11.58 d, and in the control group, it was 12.17 d. P= 0.3563 (>0.05)). On average, all patients achieved a 90% donor chimerism rate of +13.58 (±4.5) d. P=0.5121 (>0.05). The average percentage of patients that achieved successful hematopoietic reconstruction was 96.75% in observation group and 96.31% in control group. P=0.7819 (P>0.05). A total of 6 adverse events occurred during this study: 3 in the observation group and 3 in the control group.

Our preliminary results showed favorable short-term outcomes in recipients of SARS-CoV-2-positive HCST donors.