Elafin is a biomarker of graft-versus-host disease of the skin.
Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), the major complication of allogeneic bone marrow transplantation, affects the skin, liver, and gastrointestinal tract. There are no plasma biomarkers specific for any acute GVHD target organ. We used a large-scale quantitative proteomic discovery procedure to identify biomarker candidates of skin GVHD and validated the lead candidate, elafin, with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in samples from 492 patients. Elafin was overexpressed in GVHD skin biopsies. Plasma concentrations of elafin were significantly higher at the onset of skin GVHD, correlated with the eventual maximum grade of GVHD, and were associated with a greater risk of death relative to other known risk factors (hazard ratio, 1.78). We conclude that elafin has significant diagnostic and prognostic value as a biomarker of skin GVHD.
Paczesny
Sophie
S
Department of Pediatrics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
Braun
Thomas M
TM
Levine
John E
JE
Hogan
Jason
J
Crawford
Jeffrey
J
Coffing
Bryan
B
Olsen
Stephen
S
Choi
Sung W
SW
Wang
Hong
H
Faca
Vitor
V
Pitteri
Sharon
S
Zhang
Qing
Q
Chin
Alice
A
Kitko
Carrie
C
Mineishi
Shin
S
Yanik
Gregory
G
Peres
Edward
E
Hanauer
David
D
Wang
Ying
Y
Reddy
Pavan
P
Hanash
Samir
S
Ferrara
James L M
JL
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D053492:Elafin / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000379:methods; D006086:Graft vs Host Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D012867:Skin / Q000378:metabolism*
D015415:Biomarkers; D053492:Elafin