We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2013
Introduction
Severe autoimmune disorders often have a chronic relapsing course characterized by flare-ups, remissions, further progression, and finally incapacitation. Autoimmune disorders may target many different organ systems. Multiple sclerosis is characterized by inflammation and an autoimmune attack on myelin fibers, resulting in demyelination and later axonal loss. Rheumatoid arthritis is characterized by an autoimmune attack against the synovial membrane, resulting in chronic inflammation and joint destruction. In severe cases, autoimmune disorders may cause death from multiorgan involvement. A common principle for the treatment of most autoimmune disorders is immunosuppression. The evidence for the value of high-dose chemotherapy with stem cell support comes from three lines of evidence: (a) it was speculated that higher dose immunosuppression or immunoablation could eliminate the pathogenic autoreactive cells more thoroughly; (b) in a number of case reports, patients who underwent a BMT/SCT for a hematologic malignancy and had a coincidental autoimmune disorder came into remission of both diseases (Drachman & Brodsky, 2005); and (c) it could be demonstrated in animal experiments that the transfer of syngeneic stem cells following immunoablation may cure several autoimmune disorders (Sykes & Nikolic, 2005).) In the European data base, 900 patients underwent an auto-SCT between 1996 and 2007 for a variety of autoimmune conditions (Farge et al., 2010). In this chapter I will review the treatment results for multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), as well as discuss future developments.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
