title: Effect of cytomegalovirus infection on T-lymphocytes after lymphocyte-depleted bone marrow transplantation.
abstract: The effect of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection on the repopulation of the peripheral blood with T-lymphocytes was studied in recipients of lymphocyte-depleted bone marrow transplants (BMT) who had hematologic and cytogenetic evidence of engraftment. Lymphocyte depletion was performed using counterflow centrifugation and resulted in a median depletion of 98.4% (range 94.4%-99.8%) of the T cells. Between 8 and 105 days after BMT, the T-cell repopulation was characterized by a relative preponderance of T cells lacking the CD3 marker and a slow repopulation of CD3+, CD4+, and CD8+ T cells. The CD8+ T cells repopulated at a faster rate in patients with CMV infection than in those not infected with CMV. At the end of the 9- to 12-month follow-up period, patients with CMV infection had normal numbers of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells but increased numbers of HNK1+ T cells. Those without CMV infection had subnormal numbers of CD4+ T cells, normal numbers of CD8+ T cells, and numbers of HNK1+ T cells that attained the upper limit of the normal range. Most of the HNK1+ T cells in both patient groups coexpressed the CD8 marker. We conclude that the occurrence of CMV infection in recipients of lymphocyte-depleted BMT is associated with an increase in the number of T cells coexpressing CD8 and HNK1, just as in recipients of nondepleted BMT.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation; D003587:Cytomegalovirus; D003586:Cytomegalovirus Infections / Q000097:blood*; D006410:Hematopoiesis; D006801:Humans; D007938:Leukemia / Q000628:therapy; D008875:Middle Aged; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000382:microbiology*