Pathogenic mechanisms of Acute Graft versus Host Disease

COVID-19 and graft-versus-host disease: a tale of two diseases (and why age matters)

“…Current data indicate that elderly individuals exhibit more severe clinical grades of aGVHD [ 23 ]. In murine models of aGVHD, older transplant recipients are reported to be at greater risk for developing disease, with increased morbidity and mortality as well as worsened pathologic and biochemical indices of disease in older animals [ 24 ]. While there are likely a multitude of reasons and co-factors that contribute to these observations, including the fact that the immune pathways in the elderly, including suppressive limbs, may be perturbed (including regulatory T cells that normally suppress immunity), one must also consider the possibility that cytotoxic targeting of a critical stem cell population already compromised by age-related decline is a key factor in explaining enhanced severity of aGVHD in the older population.…”