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Post-Transplant Complications

Plasma endothelin-1 levels after stem cell transplantation

Abstract

Acute renal failure and veno-occlusive disease of the liver are serious complications following stem cell transplantation (SCT) and contribute to the non-relapse mortality associated with this procedure. Endothelins, a family of vasoconstrictor peptides, may be involved in the pathogenesis of a variety of renal and hepatic diseases, including CsA-associated hypertension and the hepatorenal syndrome. In order to study the relevance of endothelins to SCT-related liver and kidney dysfunction, we determined endothelin-1 (ET-1) levels in plasma samples obtained from 65 patients (38 autologous, 27 allogeneic) 7 days before and 7, 14 and 28 days after SCT. A steady increase in plasma ET-1 was observed after SCT (5.36 pg/ml, 95% CI 4.30–6.43 on day +28 vs3.82 pg/ml, 95% CI 3.21–4.43 on day −7; P = 0.020). No differences in ET-1 levels existed between autologous and allogeneic SCT recipients at any of the time points studied (P = 0.561). In addition, no significant differences were observed among patients with renal dysfunction vs those without (P = 0.187), nor in patient groups with or without hepatic dysfunction (P = 0.075). In conclusion, even though plasma ET-1 levels showed a steady increase following SCT, no correlation could be found with development of SCT-related kidney or liver dysfunction. Bone Marrow Transplantation (2000) 26, 1199–1204.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grant Nos FIS 97/0157 from the Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias de la Seguridad Social, Instituto Nacional de la Salud, Spain, and CAM 01/96 from the Dirección General de Investigación, Consejería de Educación y Cultura, Comunidad de Madrid, Spain. We thank Dr Francisco Rodriguez from the Unit of Clinical Epidemiology/Biostatistics at Hospital Universitario de la Princesa for his assistance with the statistical analysis of the data.

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Tomás, JF., Sanz-Rodriguez, C., de Soria, V. et al. Plasma endothelin-1 levels after stem cell transplantation. Bone Marrow Transplant 26, 1199–1204 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bmt.1702691

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