Histologic features of mycophenolate mofetil-related colitis: a graft-versus-host disease-like pattern

Mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) is widely used for maintenance immunosuppression in solid organ transplantation. Gastrointestinal toxicity, usually manifested as diarrhea, is the most common side effect of MMF. We evaluated colonic biopsies from 20 renal transplant patients with MMF-related diarrhea. The latter was defined by the absence of any other demonstrable etiology and improvement or resolution of symptoms by the discontinuation or reduction of the dose of MMF alone. These biopsies were compared with colon biopsies from patients with the following: acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD, n=10), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) or infectious colitis (n=10), and colon biopsies from renal transplant patients not receiving MMF (n=8). Normal colonic segments from surgical specimens served as normal controls (n=5). Colonic biopsies from patients with MMF-related diarrhea showed prominent crypt cell apoptosis and reactive/reparative changes including enterocyte cytologic atypia, increased neuroendocrine cells, and glandular architectural distortion. The changes were similar, although of milder degree to the ones seen in patients with acute intestinal GVHD. This pattern of injury was not seen in controls or in biopsies from transplant patients not receiving MMF, and it was markedly different from the one seen in idiopathic inflammatory or infectious colitis. The severity of histologic changes correlated significantly with the endoscopic degree of "colitis." There was no statistically significant correlation between histologic damage and the dose of MMF (corrected for body weight and renal function). MMF-related colitis is a distinct entity that displays histologic features remarkably similar to the ones associated with intestinal GVHD. This form of injury could be related to either direct toxicity or an "innocent by-stander" phenomenon secondary to the alteration of the immunologic microenvironment of the colon caused by the MMF.