Serum elastase and antithrombin-3 in patients with acute graft-vs.-host disease after bone marrow transplantation

: The mechanism by which inflammatory cytokines are involved in acute graft‐vs.‐host disease (GVHD) after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation has only been studied recently. We focused on the changes of serum elastase and antithrombin‐3 (AT‐3) from before pre‐treatment until the leukocyte recovery period after transplantation. We examined the correlation between these two parameters and the grade of acute GVHD, as well as the mechanism of onset. We measured the serum elastase and AT‐3 levels before pre‐treatment and during the leukocyte recovery period in 49 consecutive patients receiving bone marrow transplantation. The severity of acute GVHD was divided into five grades (0–4). No significant differences of pre‐transplantation elastase levels were observed among the GVHD grades, but the elastase level during the leukocyte recovery period showed a significant correlation with the grade of GVHD (p