The use of recombinant interleukin-11 and bone marrow transplantation in the treatment of radiation myelopathy: a novel approach. The major limiting factor to the effective treatment of acute radiation myelopathy (ARM) remains a lack of effective therapies. A model of radiation myelopathy was created in C3H mice to evaluate the use of early, adjuvant bone marrow transplant (BMT) in conjunction with recombinant interleukin 11 (rIL-11) therapy in the treatment of acute radiation myelopathy (ARM). The administration of rIL-11 was initiated 1 day following TBI, for 10 consecutive days. rIL-11 was shown to decrease the mortality rate, when compared to the mortality rate in untreated, irradiated mice. When rIL-11 treatment was coupled with a BMT administered 1 day following the first dose of rIL-11, the rates of death and motor impairment were significantly decreased. In this study, radiation myelopathy was found to occur in a fashion more similar to that of human disease, as opposed to previous reports describing ARM in rodents. As radiation myelopathy is a serious condition in humans that is associated with significant motor deficits, we believe that the use of both rIL-11 and BMT may represent a novel therapeutic approach for radiation myelopathy in humans.