T lymphocyte subpopulations in bone-marrow-transplanted patients in relation to graft-versus-host disease and cytomegalovirus-induced infection.
T cell subpopulations were studied in peripheral blood from 62 bone marrow recipients using monoclonal antibodies and flow cytometry. Patients with acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), patients with chronic GVHD, and patients with cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection had decreased OKT4/8 ratios. The data suggest that in GVHD this was due to reduced absolute numbers of OKT4-positive cells. CMV-infected patients had significantly increased numbers of OKT8-positive cells. Monitoring of T cell subpopulations was not informative for diagnosis or prognosis of acute GVHD in the single patient. CMV infection should be suspected at a sudden increase in the number of OKT8-positive cells.
D001793:Blood Preservation; D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation; D003586:Cytomegalovirus Infections / Q000097:blood*; D006086:Graft vs Host Disease / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000145:classification*; D013997:Time Factors