title: Clinical relevance of serum soluble interleukin-2 receptor levels in acute and chronic graft-versus-host disease.
abstract: Soluble interleukin-2 receptor (sIL-2R) levels were analyzed in the sera from 27 patients who underwent allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT) in order to to examine whether there was any correlation between sIL-2R levels and graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). The sIL-2R levels markedly increased at the engraftment period, mainly due to cytokine administration shortly after BMT. Although the sIL-2R levels increased at the onset of acute GVHD, the subsequent development of GVHD could not be predicted by the sIL-2R levels documented before acute GVHD. As acute GVHD improved, the sIL-2R levels decreased, thus showing that the sIL-2R levels correlated with the disease status. In patients without acute GVHD, the sIL-2R levels gradually decreased with time and returned to the pretransplant levels after about 12 weeks post BMT. The sIL-2R levels were higher in unrelated allogeneic BMT patients with acute GVHD when compared with related allogeneic BMT patients. There was a significant increase in the sIL-2R levels at the engraftment period and at the onset of acute GVHD. At the onset of chronic GVHD, the sIL-2R levels once again increased and then decreased as chronic GVHD improved. Prolonged increase in sIL-2R levels was followed by subsequent development of chronic GVHD. Patients with a poor prognosis had higher sIL-2R levels than those with a good prognosis. Therefore, it seems that sIL-2R is a useful marker for monitoring the disease status of acute and chronic GVHD.
authors.affiliation: Third Department of Internal Medicine, Hokkaido University School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Imamura
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hashino
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Asaka
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000741:Anemia, Aplastic / Q000628:therapy*; D015415:Biomarkers; D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects; D005260:Female; D006086:Graft vs Host Disease / Q000097:blood* / Q000209:etiology; D019337:Hematologic Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015375:Receptors, Interleukin-2 / Q000097:blood*; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D015375:Receptors, Interleukin-2