Graft-versus-host disease: introduction and prospect.

In order to devise the way of prevention and the progress in the treatment of transfusion-associated graft-versus-host disease (TA-GVHD), this issue is published as the results of the symposium on GVHD at Fukushima Medical College, 1992. HLA analyses of TA-GVHD forced us to alter our concept of mechanism of this disease. As one-way matching in HLA from donor to recipient is important in developing the TA-GVHD, transfusions between relatives are most hazardous and there is a higher risk even unrelated donors in Japanese. Prophylactic irradiation of blood components is the method of inactivating immunocompetent lymphocytes and is nowadays the most effective in preventing the TA-GVHD. In the future we will have leukocyte depletion filters of next generation and ultraviolet irradiation on platelet concentrates as alternative to irradiation.