Acute Colonic Graft-versus-host Disease and Ulcerative Colitis with Respect to Cytokines

Abstract

Colonic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) occurring after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT) resembles ulcerative colitis (UC) with respect to pathological features. In addition, therapy for UC has been reported to be effective for the treatment of refractory GVHD. The relationship of these two conditions with respect to cytokines was investigated in the present study.

Among 27 patients who underwent allogeneic BMT during the previous two years, six developed GVHD of grade 3 or higher, and these six patients were compared with the other 21 patients.

In six patients, the levels of the following cytokines were significantly elevated at the onset of GVHD: tumor necrosis factor-α (p<0.05), interleukin-6 (p<0.05), interleukin-8 (p<0.01), interferon-γ (p<0.05), and interleukin-7 (p<0.0001).

These findings indicate that GVHD and UC are similar in terms of their cytokine profile.

Keywords:

• Colonic graft-versus-host disease
• Bone marrow transplantation
• Ulcerative colitis
• Cytokines
• Interleukin-7
• Inflammatory bowel disease