Infusion of basic fibroblast growth factor ameliorates acute graft versus host disease in mice after haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

• bFGF infusion ameliorated clinical manifestations of aGVHD.
• bFGF infusion prolonged the survival time of mice after transplantation.
• bFGF infusion reduced the severity of aGVHD.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) on acute graft versus host disease (aGVHD) in mice after haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (haplo-HSCT). Haplo-HSCT mice model was established followed by dividing into three groups with 12 mice in each group, group 1 with infusion of 100 g/kg bFGF, group 2 with infusion of 20 g/kg bFGF and control group without infusion. Clinical manifestation and survival time of mice after haplo-HSCT were monitored. On day 14 post transplantation, mice were sacrificed for pathology analysis of liver and the changes of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC). Compared to haplo-HSCT group, clinical manifestations of aGVHD in bFGF infusion group were significantly ameliorated. Furthermore, bFGF infusion also significantly prolonged the survival time of mice after transplantation (P < 0.05) as demonstrated by Kaplan–Meier survival analysis with more infusion of bFGF, the longer survival of mice. Pathology analysis showed the severity of aGVHD in bFGF infusion group (1 and 2) was less severe than haplo-HSCT group with higher proliferation of bone marrow MSC in group 1. In conclusion, these studies demonstrated that infusion of bFGF ameliorated aGVHD in mice after haplo-HSCT.