soluble t cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain-3 (stim-3) predicts graft-versus-host disease (gvhd) in iranian allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

Background: t cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain-3 (tim-3) is an immune-checkpoint molecule that is upregulated following allogeneic immune responses and could play an important role in the development and pathogenesis of graft-versus-host disease (gvhd). the soluble form of tim-3 (stim-3) is increased following the upregulation of membranous tim-3. objectives: the aim of this study was to evaluate the association between plasma level of stim-3 and acute gvhd (agvhd) incidence in patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-hsct). methods: blood samples were collected from 42 allo-hsct patients and 20 healthy individuals 2 weeks after allo-hsct. the plasma level of stim-3 was measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (elisa). the clinical and demographic data of patients were collected from the clinical documents. data analysis was evaluated using student t-test and one-way anova tests. p-values less than 0.05 were assumed statistically significant. results: among 18 (42.8%) patients with agvhd symptoms, 10 (23.8%) had severe gvhd and 8 (19%) experienced mild gvhd. plasma stim-3 levels at day +14 were significantly higher in patients who developed agvhd compared to allo-hsct patients without gvhd and also the healthy control individuals (p-value = 0.015 and < 0.001). among the agvhd patients, the stim-3 levels in those with severe gvhd were approximately 2.5 times higher than those with mild gvhd (p-value < 0.001). conclusions: we have identified a high plasma level of stim-3 as a valuable biomarker in predicting the development of acute gvhd, especially severe agvhd in allo-hsct patients.