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)

Hyaluronan (hyaluronic acid; HA) was demonstrated and quantified in small bowel tissue at different times after small bowel transplantation. Semiallogeneic or semisyngeneic rat models were used to elicit either unidirectional graft rejection or graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). In normal rat small bowel, HA was present in the villous lamina propria and around medium-sized vessels in the interstitium of the crypt area. During graft rejection a cellular infiltrate and edema appeared in the lamina propria in the crypt area where an accumulation of HA was also demonstrated. There was progressive accumulation of HA in the small bowel during rejection, and on day 6 there was a threefold increase compared to the values in syngeneic grafts. The increase in tissue HA was paralleled by an increase in the total water content of the rejecting graft. In specimens from animals suffering from GVHD, no significant changes in water or HA content and distribution were observed until day 12. The data suggest that accumulation of HA might contribute to the pathophysiology of the transplantation edema and that HA might be of potential diagnostic value in differentiating between graft rejection and GVHD.
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PMID:Intestinal distribution of hyaluronan in small bowel allografting in the rat. 849 64

For circulating lymphocytes to migrate to inflammatory sites, they must first adhere to the target tissue endothelium with sufficient strength to overcome the shear forces of blood flow. We previously reported that dermal papillary vessels in acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD) support shear-resistant lymphocyte adherence. We now identify the relevant adhesion molecule(s) directing this binding, showing that interactions between lymphocyte CD44 and hyaluronic acid (HA) expressed on dermal vessels in aGVHD alone confer this shear-resistant attachment. Native HA deposits on vascular endothelium support lymphocyte adherence, whereas HA immobilized on plastic does not. HA expressed at dermal endothelium in aGVHD is thus specialized to support lymphocyte adherence under flow conditions, and CD44-HA interactions may contribute to lymphocytotropism to skin in aGVHD.
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PMID:CD44-hyaluronic acid interactions mediate shear-resistant binding of lymphocytes to dermal endothelium in acute cutaneous GVHD. 1450 94