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Haematopoietic stem cell transplantation induces severe dysbiosis in intestinal microbiota of paediatric ALL patients

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 52, pages 1479–1482 (2017)Cite this article

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Gastrointestinal complications are common after allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). Intensive pre-transplant conditioning and GvHD damage the intestinal epithelium. Also intensive therapy not including HSCT predisposes patients to intestinal injury.

The intestinal microbiota consists of ~1000 bacterial species.1 The critical role of intestinal microbiota in the success of allo-HSCT has been addressed in a few studies (reviewed in refs 2, 3) mainly focusing on adult patients. We report here an in-depth profiling of the intestinal microbiota in five paediatric ALL patients treated with allo-HSCT. In our longitudinal study, we also followed the microbiota of six ALL patients receiving conventional induction therapy without HSCT, and compared microbiota recovery in the two patient groups.

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Acknowledgements

Patients and sibling donors are thanked for participationin the study. Pia Valle, Satu Ranta, Annamari Aitolahti, Sisko Lehmonen and Paula Salmelainen are thanked for assistance. The study was supported by the SalWe Research Program for IMO (Tekes grant 648/10), and by the EVO Medical Research Fund of the Finnish Red Cross Blood Service.

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Author notes

  1. K Lähteenmäki, P Wacklin, J Mättö and K Vettenranta: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Finnish Red Cross Blood Service, Helsinki, Finland

    K Lähteenmäki, P Wacklin, E Tuovinen, J Partanen & J Mättö

  2. Children’s Hospital, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland

    M Taskinen & K Vettenranta

  3. Tampere Center for Child Health Research, University of Tampere and Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland

    O Lohi & K Vettenranta

Authors
  1. K Lähteenmäki
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  2. P Wacklin
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  3. M Taskinen
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  4. E Tuovinen
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  5. O Lohi
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  6. J Partanen
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  7. J Mättö
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  8. K Vettenranta
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to J Mättö.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Supplementary Information accompanies this paper on Bone Marrow Transplantation website

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Lähteenmäki, K., Wacklin, P., Taskinen, M. et al. Haematopoietic stem cell transplantation induces severe dysbiosis in intestinal microbiota of paediatric ALL patients. Bone Marrow Transplant 52, 1479–1482 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/bmt.2017.168

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