title: Potential of glycosylation research in graft versus host disease after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Glycans, complex oligosaccharides, are directly involved in almost every biological process, have a fundamental role in the immune system, and are probably involved in nearly every human disease. However, glycosylation has been greatly ignored in the area of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (alloHSCT) and graft versus host disease (GVHD). Both acute and chronic GVHD are multisystemic debilitating immunological disturbances arising after alloHSCT.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this paper, we review the glycosylation research already done in the field of alloHSCT and GVHD and evaluate further potential of glycan analysis in GVHD by looking into resembling inflammatory and autoimmune conditions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Glycan research could bring significant improvement in alloHSCT procedure with reduction in following complications, such as GVHD. Identifying glycan patterns that induce self-tolerance and the ones that cause the auto- and allo-immune response could lead to innovative and tissue-specific immunomodulative therapy instead of the current immunosuppressive treatment, enabling preservation of the graft-versus-tumor effect. Moreover, improved glycan pattern analyses could offer a more complete assessment and greatly needed dynamic biomarkers for GVHD.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This review is written with a goal to encourage glycan research in the field of alloHSCT and GVHD as a perspective tool leading to improved engraftment, discovery of much needed biomarkers for GVHD, enabling an appropriate therapy and improved monitoring of therapeutic response. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled "Glycans in personalised medicine" Guest Editor: Professor Gordan Lauc.
authors.affiliation: Croatian Cooperative Group for Hematologic Diseases, Zagreb, Croatia.
authors.forename: Ema
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Prenc
authors.affiliation: Division of Haematology, Department of Internal Medicine, University Hospital Centre Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia; University of Zagreb School of Medicine, Zagreb, Croatia; Faculty of Medicine Osijek, J. J. Strossmayer University of Osijek, Osijek, Croatia. Electronic address: dpulanic@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Drazen
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pulanic
authors.affiliation: Genos Glycoscience Research Laboratory, Zagreb, Croatia.
authors.forename: Maja
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pucic-Bakovic
authors.affiliation: Genos Glycoscience Research Laboratory, Zagreb, Croatia.
authors.forename: Marija
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pezer
authors.affiliation: Division of Haematology, Department of Internal Medicine, University Hospital Centre Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia.
authors.forename: Lana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Desnica
authors.affiliation: Division of Haematology, Department of Internal Medicine, University Hospital Centre Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia; University of Zagreb School of Medicine, Zagreb, Croatia.
authors.forename: Radovan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Vrhovac
authors.affiliation: Division of Haematology, Department of Internal Medicine, University Hospital Centre Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia; University of Zagreb School of Medicine, Zagreb, Croatia; Faculty of Medicine Osijek, J. J. Strossmayer University of Osijek, Osijek, Croatia.
authors.forename: Damir
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Nemet
authors.affiliation: Graft-versus-Host and Autoimmunity Section, Experimental Transplantation and Immunology Branch, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Steven Z
authors.initials: SZ
authors.lastname: Pavletic
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D064591:Allografts; D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism; D035843:Biomedical Research; D002908:Chronic Disease; D006031:Glycosylation; D006086:Graft vs Host Disease / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000628:therapy; D018380:Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation; D006801:Humans; D007165:Immunosuppression Therapy / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers
keywords: Glycan; Glycosylation; Graft versus host disease; Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation