ABOVE: Gut bacteria partly explain why obese mice had worse outcomes than lean individuals after bone marrow transplantation.
LAM KHUAT
The paper
L.T. Khuat et al., “Obesity induces gut microbiota alterations and augments acute graft-versus-host disease after allogeneic stem cell transplantation,” Sci Trans Med, 12:eaay7713, 2020.
Bone marrow transplants are widely used to treat certain cancers and blood diseases, but these procedures run the risk of a serious complication called graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). This immune disorder occurs when donor T cells recognize the recipient’s body as foreign, triggering inflammatory immune responses that damage the patient’s organs and can cause death. Previous studies have shown that obesity can influence immune responses, but its effects on GVHD are poorly understood.
To interrogate the effect of obesity on bone marrow transplant outcomes, UC Davis Health immunologist William Murphy and his team used a donor-recipient mouse strain combination in which transplantation usually causes GVHD in ...
