How Does Graft Versus Host Disease React to the Heart, Lungs, and Liver After an Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplant?
by Areeba Inam
Category:
Abstract – E. Donnall Thomas performed the first allogeneic transplantation in 1957. Since then, the field has grown and evolved all around the world. Allogeneic transplantation has become much more accessible thanks to the utilization of matched unrelated donors, umbilical cord blood units, and partially matched related donors. (Henig I. et al, 2014) Research in stem cells has helped doctors and scientists increase their understanding of how disease occurs, the process behind regenerative medicine, and testing drugs for safety. Over a million individuals have benefited from stem cell transplants for the treatment of leukemias, anemias, and immunodeficiencies around the world. (Dulak J. et al, 2015) On the other hand, disease relapse and graft-versus-host disease remain to be the two leading causes of death. (Henig I. et al, 2014) In this systematic review, the effects of graft-vshost-disease were looked at and how it affected the heart, lungs and liver. When an allogenic transplant occurs there is a chance for the body's tissues to view the donor tissues as foreign and attack them. The body is a complex and intricate system, when tissues are fighting off what they perceive as threats, at the same time it is harming other organs. (n=26) sources were evaluated and used to assess these effects.