What are the different types of graft versus host disease?

What are the different types of graft versus host disease?

So there are several types of GvHD. We generally split it into two major categories. So there's acute graft versus host disease, which is defined as graft versus host disease that happens in the first 100 days after a transplant, although there's some wiggle room to the exact days. And then chronic graft versus host disease, which is the graft versus host disease, that tends to come later on.

There's a relationship between them and there's differences in their underlying biology.

So generally speaking, acute graft versus host disease comes from transplanted T cells. So sort of immune cells that came along for the ride with the transplant that are what we call alloreactive. These are T cells from the donor that already learned how to be a T cell.

And they're very smart at recognizing things that are foreign. So these T cells, going into a new host, can very quickly arm themselves against the patient that has received the transplant.

So it typically looks like one of four organ toxicities.

We talk about what we call upper GI so it can attack the stomach and small intestines. Lower GI which is the colon.

It can attack the skin. And then it can also attack the liver. So generally speaking, it's one of those four organs that becomes a target, of this sort of immune mediated disease.