Serum TNFα levels in patients with acute graft-versus-host disease after bone marrow transplantation

• Published in: Leukemia Vol. 15; no. 7; pp. 1089 - 1091
• Main Authors: HUANG, X. J, WAN, J, LU, D. P
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing 01.07.2001; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: Anesthesia. Intensive care medicine. Transfusions. Cell therapy and gene therapy; Biological and medical sciences; Bone marrow; Bone marrow transplantation; Bone marrow, stem cells transplantation. Graft versus host reaction; Bone tumors; Complications; Conditioning; Graft versus host disease; Graft-versus-host reaction; Infections; Medical sciences; Pathogenesis; Serum levels; Statistical methods; Stem cell transplantation; Transfusions. Complications. Transfusion reactions. Cell and gene therapy; Transplantation; Tumor necrosis factor-α; Human; Immunopathology; Biochemical analysis; Stem cell; Cytokine; Hematopoietic cell; Homograft; Graft versus host reaction; Clinical biology; Bone marrow; Complication; Graft; Serum; Diagnosis; Tumor necrosis factor α; Quantitative analysis
• ISSN: 0887-6924; 1476-5551
• DOI: 10.1038/sj.leu.2402151

Tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα) has been implicated in the pathogenesis of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). In this study, serum levels of TNFα were assessed by ELISA in 243 sera samples from 40 patients who had undergone allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT). Serum TNFα levels were measured before BMT and at different time points after BMT. The results were correlated with acute GVHD (aGVHD), infection and conditioning regimen. Serum TNFα levels were significantly higher in patients with grades II–IV aGVHD than in those with grade 0 or I aGVHD, but there was no clear correlation between serum TNFα and severity of aGVHD. Serum TNFα levels in infected patients were not statistically different from those in patients without infection. The conditioning regimen did not cause a significant rise in TNFα levels. These results indicate that TNFα may be useful for the diagnosis of aGVHD and for differentiating between aGVHD and other BMT-related complications, such as infection.