Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0018133 (graft-versus-host disease)
 18,032 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

A 26-year-old male with chronic myelogenous leukemia in lymphoid blast crisis received a bone marrow transplant (BMT) from a phenotypically identical, mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR)-weakly positive unrelated male volunteer donor. The volunteer was obtained from the Tokai Marrow Donor Bank (TMDB), which was established in Japan in 1989. This donor was selected from volunteer donors who were identical with our patient at the HLA-A,B loci, followed by matching at HLA-DQ, DR loci. On MLR testing, the donor's cells showed no response, but the patient's cells showed a low response to the donor's cells (relative response index 0.29). The patient showed rapid hemopoietic engraftment. He developed acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) with vesicle formation on palms and soles and mild liver damage, which were successfully treated with intravenous prednisolone 1 mg/kg per day. Although he also suffered from interstitial pneumonitis on day 64 and localized varicella-zoster infection on day 87, and has suffered from moderate stomatitis and dry skin characteristic of chronic GVHD, he is currently 22 months post-transplant with hematological remission and has a normal daily social life.
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PMID:Bone marrow transplantation for chronic myelogenous leukemia in blastic phase using a phenotypically identical unrelated volunteer donor. Nagoya Bone Marrow Transplantation Group (NBMTG), Tokai Marrow Donor Bank (TMDB). 149 15

Scleroderma (SSc) is a fibrosing connective tissue disease that is poorly responsive to any treatment, including immune suppression. SSc shares many characteristics with chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). Because the immunomodulatory drug thalidomide has proven beneficial in chronic GVHD, we studied the immune response and clinical effects of thalidomide in SSc patients. We treated 11 SSc patients with thalidomide in an open label, dose escalating, 12 week study. Histologic comparison of skin biopsies showed changes in skin fibrosis and an increase in epidermal and dermal infiltrating CD8(+) T cells with thalidomide treatment. In thalidomide-treated SSc patients, plasma levels of IL-12 and TNF-alpha increased, while plasma IL-5 and IL-10 levels remained unchanged. These changes were associated with clinical effects, including dry skin, dermal edema, transient rashes, decreased gastroesophageal reflux symptoms, and healing of digital ulcers. When SSc PBMCs activated by anti-CD3 mAb were exposed to thalidomide, increases in both production of IL-2, IL-3, GM-CSF, and IFN-gamma and T cell expression of CD40L were observed. Thalidomide therefore appears to induce immune stimulation in SSc patients in association with clinical changes. However, it remains to be shown whether long-term enhancement of immune responses in SSc patients is clinically beneficial.
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PMID:Immune stimulation in scleroderma patients treated with thalidomide. 1102 51