Healthy Gut May Prevent Side Effects of Bone Marrow Transplant

According to the March 21, 2016 news release, “Up to half of patients who receive a bone marrow transplant from a donor will develop severe gastrointestinal [GI] damage from graft vs. host disease [GVHD], a condition in which the donor cells attack the host’s body. It’s the reason why transplants—which can be very successful at eliminating cancers such as leukemia or lymphoma—are so risky.”

Researchers from the University of Michigan have found that, “…a metabolite called butyrate was significantly reduced in the intestinal tract of experimental mice that received bone marrow transplant. When the researchers increased butyrate in these mouse models, they saw a decrease in the incidence and severity of graft vs. host disease.”

“Our findings suggest we can prevent graft vs. host disease by bolstering the amount of the microbiome-derived metabolite butyrate, ” said study lead author Pavan Reddy, M.D., the Moshe Talpaz Professor of Translational Pathology and interim division chief of hematology/oncology at the University of Michigan.

Dr. Reddy told OTW, “We wanted to determine how microbial communities in the GI tract communicate and potentially affect hosts response after allogeneic stem cell transplant.”

“It was most surprising that microbial communication can impact host tissue responses and mitigate the complications from GVHD without actually significantly altering donor immune cell functions.”