Notably, in this trial, treatment of severe scleroderma with myeloablative therapy and CD34+ selected autologous hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation led to superior long-term outcomes as compared with standard therapy and fewer scleroderma relapses, defined as the need for disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARD) therapy after non-myeloablative regimen, probably due to T cell depletion after total body irradiation. The gene discussed is CD34; the disease is scleroderma.