title: Prolonged secretion of IL-15 in patients with severe forms of acute graft-versus-host disease after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation in children.
abstract: Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is one of the most common and fatal complications that follows allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT). Donor origin T cells are responsible for the initiation of GVHD. In this report, we demonstrate that conditioning regimens for BMT resulted in elevated serum levels of interleukin-15 (IL-15), which reached maximum levels within 15 days and returned to basal levels within 25 days after allogeneic BMT, in all patients examined. Thereafter, circulating IL-15 was detected only in patients with grade III or IV acute GVHD with gut involvement. In contrast, IL-2 was not detected at any time in these patients. Since IL-15 is able to activate antigen-stimulated T cells and natural killer (NK) cells, IL-15 may play an important role in the development of severe forms of acute GVHD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Oncology, Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kumaki
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Minegishi
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fujie
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sasahara
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ohashi
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tsuchiya
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Konno
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006086:Graft vs Host Disease / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D019409:Interleukin-15 / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D013997:Time Factors; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous
chemical_list: D019409:Interleukin-15