Abstract
The routine use of bone marrow transplantation is limited by the occurrence of acute and chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). Current approaches to decreasing the occurrence of GVHD after allogeneic transplantation use T-cell depletion, use immunosuppressive agents, or block costimulatory molecule function. The role of proteins in the recruitment of alloreactive lymphocytes has not been well characterized. Chemokines are a large family of proteins that mediate recruitment of mononuclear cells in vitro and in vivo. To investigate the role of T-cell production of the chemokine macrophage inhibitory protein-1α (MIP-1α) in the occurrence of GVHD, splenocytes either from wild-type or from MIP-1α-/- mice were administered to class I (B6.C-H2bm1) and class II disparate mice (B6-C- H2bm12). The incidence and severity of GVHD was markedly reduced in bm1 mice receiving splenocytes from MIP-1α-/- mice as compared with mice receiving wild-type splenocytes. Bm1 mice receiving MIP-1α-/- splenocytes had significantly less weight loss and markedly reduced inflammatory responses in the lung and liver than mice receiving C57BL/6 splenocytes. Bm1 mice receiving MIP-1α-/- splenocytes had a markedly decreased production of antichromatin autoantibodies and impaired generation of bm1-specific T lymphocytes versus wild-type mice. However, MIP-1α-/- splenocytes easily induced GVHD when administered to bm12 mice. This data show that blockade of chemokine production or function may provide a new approach to the prevention or treatment of GVHD but that chemokines that recruit both CD4+ and CD8+ lymphocytes may need to be targeted.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 43-50 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Blood |
Volume | 93 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 1 1999 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Biochemistry
- Immunology
- Hematology
- Cell Biology