Determination of Th1/Th2/Th17 Cytokines in Patients Undergoing Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation

Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation emerges as a therapy option to treat the sequels of exposure to radiation, a great concern at the beginning of the atomic age and cold war (Welniak et al., 2007). Hematopoietic cell transplantation emerged as a rescue strategy since there were already antecedents, like the study of Lorenz et al. in 1952 (as cited by Welniak et al., 2007), who showed that infusion of the bone marrow after lethal irradiation healed radiation disease in mice. This lay the foundations for the current consideration of allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation as the first-line therapy for many lifethreatening oncological and hematological diseases. Today, it is primarily used to treat patients with hereditary anemias or immunological deficiencies through replacement of the hematopoietic system with cells from a healthy individual. It also allows cancer patients to be treated with myeloablative radiation and/or chemotherapy (known as myeloablative conditioning) in an attempt to eliminate tumoral cells, and although this strategy brings loss of bone marrow function, the latter can be recovered with infusion of normal hematopoietic cells (Jenq & Van den Brink, 2010).