Extracorporeal photopheresis: Review of technical aspects

Abstract

Extracorporeal photochemotherapy (ECP) is considered as an immune modulating therapy majorly targeting the T cells of the Immune system. ECP induces an anti-inflammatory condition with tolerogenic responses without inducing a global immunosuppression state which is a typical feature of other therapeutic options such as steroids. Clinical indication of ECP has grown over time since its initial applications. Our review discusses the technical aspects of the concept of photopheresis with the available methods for its clinical applications.

Keywords

• Extracorporeal photopheresis
• graft-versus-host disease
• leukapheresis
• T cells