Figure 1.

Study design. Timeline of autologous peripheral stem cell transplantation (APSCT). Saliva and serum sampling were performed at the four defined time-points of APSCT (day −3/−7, day 0, day +7, day +14). Timescale pre-and post APSCT were different among the individual cases (i.e., the thin line is not proportional to the elapsed time). Day −3/−7 is the time of admission and start of the conditional therapy; day 0 is the day of the transplantation (administering the harvested CD34+ stem cells in a stem cell infusion); day +7 is usually the deepest point of cytopenia with most severe oral mucositis; by day +14, neutrophil and thrombocyte engraftment has developed if insertion and proliferation of stem cells were successful.