Other Applications

Transplantation and Graft versus Host Disease

Graft-versus-host (GvHD) reactions occur, to a variable degree, in all recipients of allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantations. A major clinical problem in the management of transplantation patients is the difficulty of distinguishing GvHD activity, a process that may be amenable to immunosuppressive treatment, from GvHD damage to various host tissues.

In a retrospective study published in Blood (2007), Luft and colleagues showed that plasma caspase-cleaved cytokeratin 18 (referred to as ”CK18F” in the paper) is a sensitive and quantitative biomarker of hepatic and intestinal epithelial apoptosis caused by GvHD. CK18F was measured using the M30-Apoptosense® ELISA from PEVIVA.

Sepsis

The clinical syndrome of sepsis encompasses a highly heterogeneous group of clinical disorders, varying with respect to the site, presence of infection and with the clinical syndrome evolving in the host.

The incidences of severe sepsis (sepsis associated with acute organ dysfunction) and septic shock (sepsis associated with cardiovascular compromise) are estimated to be between 300 000 and 750 000 cases each year.

Roth et al. (2004) demonstrated increased serum level of caspase-cleaved CK18 in septic patients as compared with trauma patients and healthy controls. The clinical significance of this finding is unclear at present.