Immunosuppressive medication effectively treats ocular graft-versus-host-disease

A complication associated with bone marrow transplantation, graft-versus-host-disease, occurs when a transplanted immune system attacks certain parts of a host’s body, and may cause severe dry eye and damage to the cornea. A clinical trial showed that topical doses of ultra low-dose tacrolimus, an immunosuppressive medication, is equally effective and showed fewer hypertensive side effects in treating ocular symptoms associated with graft-versus-host-disease than methylprednisolone, a steroid medication.