Research progress of endothelial injury in the development of graft-versus-host disease

Abstract

Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is one of the most serious complications after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT), resulting a very high mortality risk and no effective diagnosis and treatment method. Although an increasing number of studies suggest that immune-mediated vascular endothelial damage plays an important role in GVHD, the specific mechanism remains elusive. On the basis of endothelial injury caused by radiotherapy and chemotherapy before allo-HSCT and infection, the donor T cells directly contact with the damaged endothelial cell antigen, secrete cytokines and inflammatory mediators to kill endothelial cells, leading to further apoptosis and depletion of endothelial cells, and exacerbating the functional damage of target organs and multi-system injury of the body. To explore the endothelial injury mechanism of GVHD. This review provides a new idea for the prevention and treatment of GVHD.

Keywords

• allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation|graft-versus-host disease|endothelial injury