Delaying acute graft-versus-host disease in mouse bone marrow transplantation by treating donor cells with antibodies directed at L-selectin and α4-integrin prior to infusion

Acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is still a major hurdle for successful bone marrow transplantation (BMT). Although many immunosuppressive drugs are available, none of them alone or in combination are able to completely abolish acute GVHD. The lifelong immunosuppression profoundly reduces the quality of life of BMT recipients. Therefore, new therapeutic approaches are needed. We previously reported that, in an acute GVHD model using SCID mice as recipient, incubating donor spleen cells with antibodies directed at CD49d and CD62L could significantly delay the occurrence of acute GVHD. To test the potential usefulness of this treatment in BMT, we examined this therapeutic protocol in a mouse BMT model. The present mouse BMT study confirmed our previous results that incubation of donor cells with antibodies directed at CD49d and CD62L prior to infusion into the recipient can effectively delay acute GVHD, allowing the recipients to recover from the side effects of total body irradiation. This one-time treatment is easy and simple and may be modified for clinical usage.