GRAFT-VERSUS-HOST DISEASE IN BONE-MARROW TRANSPLANTATION - EXPERIMENTAL, LABORATORY, AND CLINICAL CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE LAST FEW YEARS

Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is a major and often lethal complicat ion of bone marrow transplantation. Research of the past few years has greatly expanded our understanding of the disease and enriched the ar senal of preventive and therapeutic procedures. The present review att empts to give a survey of experimental and clinical GVHD, updating ess ential knowledge with the latest information until July 1993. The cove red topics include the complex immune pathomechanism of acute and chro nic GVHD in murine models, the pathogenic role of major, minor, and ot her antigenic disparities, laboratory markers predicting GVHD, factors influencing appearance and course of the disease, the relationship be tween GVHD and the graft-versus-leukemia effect, and novel experimenta l and clinically tested preventive and therapeutic modalities. Finally , the authors set forth their perspective on the most relevant questio ns in GVHD-related research.