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World J Hematol. Jan 17, 2023; 10(2): 15-24
Published online Jan 17, 2023. doi: 10.5315/wjh.v10.i2.15
Advantageous tactics with certain probiotics for the treatment of graft-versus-host-disease after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
Sayuri Yoshikawa, Kurumi Taniguchi, Haruka Sawamura, Yuka Ikeda, Ai Tsuji, Satoru Matsuda
Sayuri Yoshikawa, Kurumi Taniguchi, Haruka Sawamura, Yuka Ikeda, Ai Tsuji, Satoru Matsuda, Food Science and Nutrition, Nara Women's University, Nara 630-8506, Japan
Author contributions: Yoshikawa S and Matsuda S contributed conception of the study; Yoshikawa S, Taniguchi K, Sawamura H, Ikeda Y, Tsuji A, and Matsuda S wrote sections of the manuscript; all authors contributed to manuscript revision, and have read and given final approval of the version to be submitted.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors declare that they have no competing financial interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Satoru Matsuda, MD, PhD, Professor, Food Science and Nutrition, Nara Women's University, Kita-Uoya Nishimachi, Nara 630-8506, Japan. smatsuda@cc.nara-wu.ac.jp
Received: August 2, 2022
Peer-review started: August 2, 2022
First decision: October 21, 2022
Revised: November 3, 2022
Accepted: November 23, 2022
Article in press: November 23, 2022
Published online: January 17, 2023
Abstract

Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) becomes a standard form of cellular therapy for patients with malignant diseases. HSCT is the first-choice of immunotherapy, although HSCT can be associated with many complications such as graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) which is a major cause of morbidity and mortality after allogeneic HSCT. It has been shown that certain gut microbiota could exert protective and/or regenerative immunomodulatory effects by the production of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) such as butyrate in the experimental models of GVHD after allogeneic HSCT. Loss of gut commensal bacteria which can produce SCFAs may worsen dysbiosis, increasing the risk of GVHD. Expression of G-protein coupled receptors such as GPR41 seems to be upre-gulated in the presence of commensal bacteria, which might be associated with the biology of regulatory T cells (Tregs). Treg cells are a suppressive subset of CD4 positive T lymphocytes implicated in the prevention of GVHD after allogeneic HSCT. Here, we discuss the current findings of the relationship between the modification of gut microbiota and the GVHD-related immunity, which suggested that tactics with certain probiotics for the beneficial symbiosis in gut-immune axis might lead to the elevation of safety in the allogeneic HSCT.

Keywords: Gut microbiota, Hematopoietic stem cell, Reactive oxygen species, Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, Graft vs host disease, Gut-immune axis

Core Tip: Potential efficacy of probiotics for the treatment of graft vs host disease after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation has been shown here.