Background: The purpose of this study was to compare the immunolocalization of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in salivary glands of bone marrow transplant (BMT) recipients with normal controls and between the different stages of chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD). In addition, the impact of the immunolocalization of VEGF on the survival rate of BMT patients was investigated as well.
Methods: Labial salivary glands obtained at the day 100+ from 36 consecutive patients, who underwent BMT, were included in the study. The streptavidin-biotin-peroxidase complex stain was used to detect VEGF in the salivary glands. Time of death after BMT was displayed by means of the Kaplan-Meier method for the following parameters: age and gender of the patients, donor gender, acute GVHD, cGVHD staging at the labial salivary glands, primary disease, platelet and neutrophils counts on day of biopsy, stem cell, oral mucositis, parenteral nutrition, oral lichenoid lesions of GVHD, conditioning regimen and immunolocalization degree of VEGF in labial salivary glands. The data were initially analyzed by means of the log-rank test and then included in the Cox's proportional hazard model.
Results: No differences on the immunolocalization of VEGF in the labial salivary glands of BMT recipients and control group or between the different stages of glandular cGVHD were noted. Both univariate and multivariate analysis of the survival rate showed significance of 5% only for platelet count over 100 x 109/l on the day of biopsy and male donor gender.
Conclusions: Platelet count over 100 x 109/l and male donor gender are positive predictive factors on the survival rate after BMT. In addition, the immunolocalization of VEGF in salivary glands is not altered in BMT recipients at day 100+ and is not influenced by the stage of cGVHD.