Role of dendritic cells and chemokines in acute graft-versus-host disease.

Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is a major complication of allogeneic bone marrow transplantation. GVHD is caused by donor T cells that recognize and react to recipient histocompatibility differences, resulting in significant morbidity and mortality. The pathophysiology of GVHD is complex, which occurs in three phases: induction phase, activation phase and effector phase. Numerous studies have demonstrated that GVHD involves multiple inflammatory cells and cytokines, in particular of antigen presenting cells, chemokines and T cell subsets. This review will discuss roles of a special antigen presenting cell: dendritic cell and chemokines in T cell-mediated acute GVHD.