Neutrophils engraftment delay during tigecycline treatment in 2 bone marrow-transplanted patients

BACKGROUND: Tigecycline is the first available drug of glycylcycline family. Because of recent introduction, some of its adverse effects could be still unexplored. OBSERVATION: We report the cases of 2 boys who underwent an allogenic bone marrow transplantation for acute myeloid leukemia and were treated with tigecycline. Erythrocyte and platelet engraftment followed a normal course, but the neutrophil count remained low despite the increase in leukocyte count. After tigecycline interruption, the neutrophil count rapidly raised in both cases. CONCLUSIONS: Neutropenia was suspected to be secondary to tigecycline exposure. In vitro experiments were performed, which suggested tigecycline influence on myeloid cells survival.