T lymphocytes and cytokines in graft-versus-host disease : a study in mice with emphasis on prevention and treatment.

Abstract

This thesis describes the results of experiments aimed to improve the insight into this complex disease using a murine model. Based on previous work from our laboratory we investigated the possibilities to prevent GVHD in a specific manner, namely by pretreatment of prospective donors with a recipient-specific blood transfusion. Furthermore, we assessed the role of (subsets of) T lymphocytes and of cytokines in GVHD. Cytokines are factors that can be produced a.o. by T cells and play a central role in immune and inflammatory reactions. Recent data from the literature indicate that cytokines might be involved in the development of GVHD. We studied the therapeutic effect of in vivo administration of anti-T cell (subset), anti-cytokine and anti-cytokine receptor monoclonal antibodies (mAb) on GVH