Soluble Fas Levels in Sera of Bone Marrow Transplantation
Recipients Are Increased During Acute Graft-Versus-Host Disease But
Not During Infections
Linda M. Liem,
Thea van Lopik,
Annemarie E.M. van
Nieuwenhuijze,
Hans C. van Houwelingen,
Lucien Aarden, and
Els Goulmy
From the Department of Immunohematology and Blood Bank and the
Department of Medical Statistics, Leiden University Medical Center,
Leiden, The Netherlands; and the Central Laboratory of the Netherlands
Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and infections are two major
complications of allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT). In the
course of GVHD, one of the pathways that activated cytotoxic T cells
use to execute their killing mechanisms is the Fas/Fas ligand pathway.
This killing mechanism might be accompanied by the release of soluble
Fas (sFas) in the circulation. To examine the association of serum sFas
levels and post-BMT complications, we have analyzed sFas levels in sera
of bone marrow recipients with and without GVHD. Postallogeneic BMT
sFas levels were significantly increased during clinically relevant
acute GVHD (aGVHD; P = .002). However, during infections sFas
levels tended to decrease (P = .088). Yet, the simultaneous
occurrence of GVHD and infections resulted in extreme high sFas levels.
These results suggested that sFas release may be correlated with the
amount of tissue damage, because aGVHD induces more damage than
infections. The presence of significantly increased sFas levels during
aGVHD provides new insights into the GVHD pathogenesis.
Blood, Vol. 91 No. 4 (February 15), 1998:
pp. 1464-1468
© 1998 by The American Society of Hematology.
