Evaluation of the relationship between cytomegalovirus replication and acute graft-versus-host disease in patients with allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

Introduction: It is controversial that cytomegalovirus (CMV) replication is a cause of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). The aim of this study is to evaluate whether CMV replication causes acute GVHD development or not. Materials and methods: The study is retrospective. Patients diagnosed with acute GVHD with a prior history of allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT) were included in the study. All the included patients were followed-up in the bone marrow transplantation unit between 01/01/201310/31/2019. As the control group, patients without a history of acute GVHD after allo-HCT were included. The data of patients with acute GVHD after allo-HCT and patients with out known acute GVHD were compared. Results: Fifty nine patients with acute GVHD and 178 patients without acute GVHD after allo-HCT were included in the study. Sixteen of the patients with acute GVHD were female and 43 were male. Sixty two of the patients without acute GVHD were female and 116 were male. The average CMVDNA level was found as 1871.0 [821.0-16720.0] copies/ml in patients who had CMV replication in the acute GVHD group. On the other hand, the average of CMV-DNA level was found as 1607.5 [601.0119181.0] copies/ml in the non-acute GVHD group. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups. Discussion: CMV replication does not seem to contribute to acute GVHD development after allo-HCT. Suppression of CMV replication may not prevent acute GVHD development.