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Graft-Versus-Host Disease

IL-21 is critical for GVHD in a mouse model

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 45, pages 723–729 (2010)Cite this article

Abstract

Immunological effects of IL-21 on T, B and natural killer (NK) cells have been reported, but the role of IL-21 in GVHD remains obscure. Here, we demonstrate that morbidity and mortality of GVHD was significantly reduced after BMT with splenocytes from IL-21R−/− mice compared with those from wild type mice. To further confirm our observation, we generated a decoy receptor for IL-21. GVHD was again less severe in mice receiving BM cells transduced with the IL-21 decoy receptor than control mice These results suggest that IL-21 critically regulates GVHD, and that blockade of the IL-21 signal may represent a novel strategy for the prophylaxis for GVHD.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr Kitamura (Institute of Medical Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo) for donating PLAT-E, a packaging cell line. This work was supported in part by grants from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan, by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan, by the Intramural Research Program of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, MD, USA), and by an Intramural Research Grant from Jichi Medical University, Tochigi, Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Hematology, Department of Medicine, Jichi Medical University Tochigi, Tochigi, Japan

    A Meguro, K Ozaki, I Oh, K Hatanaka, H Matsu, R Tatara, K Sato & K Ozawa

  2. Laboratory of Molecular Immunology, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA

    W J Leonard

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  1. A Meguro
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Correspondence to K Ozaki.

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Meguro, A., Ozaki, K., Oh, I. et al. IL-21 is critical for GVHD in a mouse model. Bone Marrow Transplant 45, 723–729 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/bmt.2009.223

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