ATG5 Dependent Autophagy in Graft-Versus-Host Disease Target Organs Mitigates Disease Severity Post Allogeneic Bone Marrow Transplant

In immune mediated diseases such as graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), research has focused almost entirely on hematopoietic cells. It has recently been posited that mechanisms within target tissues also play a significant role in regulating the severity of disease. Autophagy protects cells from a variety of stressors and is known to affect immune cell responses after allogeneic bone marrow transplant (allo-BMT). However, a definitive and exclusive role of target tissue pathways on mitigating GVHD has heretofore not been demonstrated. Because GVHD target organs are under stress from alloreactive T cells, we sought to determine the role of target tissue autophagy in mitigating the severity of GVHD.