Donor Cytomegalovirus Immunity is a Risk Factor for Chronic Graft-Versus-Host Disease (GvHD) After Allogeneic Bone Marrow Transplantation

Chronic Graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) develops in approximately 30% of patients after allogenic bone marrow transplantation, presumably mediated by an immunologic reaction of transplanted donor cells against recipient antigens. Recipient age and previous acute GvHD have been found to predispose for this complication1. More recently, it has been reported that the onset of chronic GvHD frequently is preceded by a cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection2. We hypothezised that an immunologic reaction of donor cells against CMV infected recipient cells could be involved in the pathogenesis of chronic GvHD. We therefore decided to analyse the effect of donor pretransplant CMV immunity on the incidence of chronic GvHD.