Antibodies to 60, 65 and 70 kDa heat shock proteins in pediatric allogeneic stem cell transplant recipients.

Allogeneic SCT remains the only means of cure for many patients with various malignant disorders as well as non-malignant diseases. Infection together with severe aGvHD may result in a significant incidence of transplant-related morbidity and mortality. Current evidence suggests that hSPS represent major immunodominant antigens in many pathogens and therefore might play an important role in the pathogenesis of GvHD. We investigated the levels of total Ig, IgG and IgM isotype antibodies to rh-hsp60, recombinant Mycobacterium bovis hsp65 and stress-inducible rh-hsp70 in sera of pediatric patients undergoing SCT by using ELISA. We studied whether humoral immune responses to hSPS follow transplant-related complications, bacterial and fungal infection. Anti-hsp antibodies were detected in patients' sera before conditioning, over the course of conditioning and all the time post-transplant. We found no correlation between anti-hsp antibodies and the occurrence and severity of GvHD and/or other transplant-related complications like graft failure, hemorrhagic cystitis and capillary leakage syndrome. However, elevated anti-hsp antibodies involving IgM and IgG isotypes were found to be associated with bacterial and fungal infection depending on etiological agents. We demonstrated de novo humoral response to hSPS in a cohort of patients with actual infection caused by Klebsiella pneumoniae (anti-hsp60, anti-hsp65 and anti-hsp70), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (anti-hsp60, anti-hsp70) and Aspergillus fumigatus (anti-hsp65). We conclude that anti-hsp antibodies might be produced after SCT in relation to infection depending on etiological agents; however, transplant-related complications by themselves had a little impact.