GVHD,Acute, Cellular Stress Clinical Trial
Official title:
Analysis of Cellular Stress Markers in the Intestine of Patients With Graft-versus-host Disease
This study has the aim to analyze intestinal expression of cellular stress molecules in patients with intestinal GVHD. Patients with colitis and patients without intestinal inflammation will serve as controls.
Acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in
patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT). Acute GVHD
results from a complex multi-step crosstalk between extensive epithelial tissue damage in the
patient and activation of the allo-reactive immune system transferred with the donor graft.
The conditioning treatment prior to allo-HCT creates an inflamed microenvironment with high
concentrations of pathogen-associated and danger-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs and
DAMPs) as well as pro-inflammatory cytokines. This inflammation is perpetuated by activation
of myeloid immune cells and recruitment of allo-reactive T cells to the intestine.
Enterocytes are subjected to cellular stress and undergo apoptosis. As a result, patients can
develop high-voluminous diarrhea, dehydration, intestinal bleeding, hypalbuminemia, and
generalized infections.
In this study, the investigators aim to analyze the expression of molecules related to
different types of cellular stress in the intestine of patients with acute GVHD. The
hypothesis is that some stress-related markers would be upregulated during GVHD. The results
will be valuable to study the role of cellular stress reactions during acute GVHD
pathogenesis or as potential biomarkers for disease activity.
;