Plasma levels of norepinephrine and expression levels of ß2-adrenergic receptor gene correlate with the incidence of acute graft-versus-host disease

Zahra Momeni-Varposhti; Mohammad Hossein Kazemi; Mehdi Talebi; Rouzbeh Chegeni; Elham Roshandel; Abbas Hajifathali; Ali Akbar Movassaghpour

doi:10.34171/mjiri.34.151

Plasma levels of norepinephrine and expression levels of ß2-adrenergic receptor gene correlate with the incidence of acute graft-versus-host disease

Med J Islam Repub Iran. 2020 Nov 9:34:151. doi: 10.34171/mjiri.34.151. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Zahra Momeni-Varposhti¹, Mohammad Hossein Kazemi^{2

3}, Mehdi Talebi⁴, Rouzbeh Chegeni⁵, Elham Roshandel³, Abbas Hajifathali³, Ali Akbar Movassaghpour¹

Affiliations

¹ Hematology and Oncology Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
² Student Research Committee, Department of Immunology, School of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
³ Hematopoietic Stem Cell Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
⁴ Department of Applied Cell Sciences, School of Advance Medical Sciences, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
⁵ The Michener Institute of Education, University Health Network, Toronto, Canada.

Abstract

Background: Acute graft-versus-host disease is a major complication in allogeneic hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation. Epinephrine and norepinephrine are stress hormones which affect many cells, including immune cells through interaction with adrenergic receptors, mainly β2-adrenergic receptor. The immunomodulatory effects of epinephrine, norepinephrine, and signaling of the adrenergic receptor have been shown to decrease the probability of the acute graft-versus-host disease in animal models. The aim of our study was to investigate the possible correlations between the serum levels of epinephrine and norepinephrine and also leukocytic expression levels of β2-adrenergic receptor with the incidence of acute graft-versus-host disease in patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation. Methods: In this study, the plasma levels of epinephrine and norepinephrine and the leukocytic expression of β2-adrenergic receptor gene were measured and compared in allogeneic hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation patients with and without acute graft-versus-host disease. Data were analyzed and illustrated using SPSS 19 and GraphPad Prism 6. The student T-test, Pearson, and Spearman's tests were performed and p<0.05 was considered as significant. Results: We showed that the plasma levels of norepinephrine and the relative amount of the mRNA of β2-adrenergic receptor at 7 and 21 days after allogeneic hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation were significantly lower in patients with acute graft-versus-host disease than recipients without acute graft-versus-host disease. There were also negative correlations between the plasma levels of norepinephrine, leukocytic levels of the mRNA of β2-adrenergic receptor, and the incidence of acute graft-versus-host disease. Conclusion: Our results suggest that stress hormones and their receptor might have a role in preventing acute graft-versus-host disease and could be promising factors in controlling the outcome of allogeneic hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation.

Keywords: Acute graft-versus-host disease; Epinephrine; Norepinephrine; β2-adrenergic recepto.