Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2007 Oct;150(4):197-214.
doi: 10.1016/j.trsl.2007.06.003. Epub 2007 Jul 3.

Pathophysiology of acute graft-versus-host disease: recent advances

Yaping Sun  1 , Isao Tawara, Tomomi Toubai, Pavan Reddy
Affiliations
Review

Pathophysiology of acute graft-versus-host disease: recent advances

Yaping Sun et al. Transl Res. 2007 Oct.

Abstract

Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is a potentially curative therapy for many malignant and nonmalignant hematologic diseases. Donor T cells from the allografts are critical for the success of this effective therapy. Unfortunately these T cells not only recognize and attack the disease cells/tissues but also the other normal tissues of the recipient as "foreign" or "nonself" and cause severe, immune-mediated toxicity, graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). Several insights into the complex pathophysiology of GVHD have been gained from recent experimental observations, which show that acute GVHD is a consequence of interactions between both the donor and the host innate and adaptive immune systems. These insights have identified a role for a variety of cytokines, chemokines, novel T-cell subsets (naĩve, memory, regulatory, and NKT cells) and for non-T cells of both the donor and the host (antigen presenting cells, delta T cells, B cells, and NK cells) in modulating the induction, severity, and maintenance of acute GVHD. This review will focus on the immunobiology of experimental acute GVHD with an emphasis on the recent observations.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Three phases of GVHD immuno-biology
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Appelbaum FR. Haematopoietic cell transplantation as immunotherapy. Nature. 2001;411:385–9. - PubMed
    1. Welniak LA, Blazar BR, Murphy WJ. Immunobiology of Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation. Annu Rev Immunol 2006 - PubMed
    1. Ferrara JL, Reddy P. Pathophysiology of graft-versus-host disease. Semin Hematol. 2006;43:3–10. - PubMed
    1. Deeg HJ. How I Treat Refractory Acute GVHD. Blood 2007 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Weiden PL, Flournoy N, Thomas ED, Prentice R, Fefer A, Buckner CD, Storb R. Antileukemic effect of graft-versus-host disease in human recipients of allogeneic-marrow grafts. N Engl J Med. 1979;300:1068–73. - PubMed

MeSH terms

Substances