title: T cell receptor repertoire of CD4+ and CD8+ T cell subsets in the allogeneic bone marrow transplant recipient.
abstract: Allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT) has become a therapy of choice for the treatment of certain malignancies and hematopoietic disorders. However, immunodeficiencies following BMT continue to cause significant morbidity and mortality. We have compared the T cell receptor (TCR) repertoire of BMT patients and healthy control individuals by staining peripheral blood mononuclear cells with fluorochrome-labeled TCR-specific antibodies. Several patients exhibited a biased pattern of TCR expression atypical of the healthy controls, yet no particular TCR bias characterized all patients. For example, we found that 2%-8% of T cells from healthy individuals expressed the V beta 19 TCR. One BMT patient exhibited V beta 19 expression on more than 60% of peripheral T cells, while additional patients expressed V beta 19 on less than 1% of T cells. The patients with the most extreme skewing of TCR types suffered from graft-versus-host disease. The causes of skewed TCR V beta expression patterns in BMT patients are not fully understood, yet some researchers have suggested that an oligoclonal expansion of CD8+ T cell populations may be largely responsible. To test this hypothesis, we examined the TCR V beta repertoire of CD4+ and CD8+ T cell populations. We found that biased V beta expression characterized both CD4+ and CD8+ T cell populations, sometimes within a single individual. Thus, therapies directed toward CD8+ T cells alone may not fully correct repertoire abnormalities following BMT.
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN 38101, USA.
authors.forename: F S
authors.initials: FS
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: S D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Rencher
authors.forename: H E
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Heslop
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Hurwitz
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation / Q000276:immunology*; D017252:CD3 Complex / Q000032:analysis*; D016516:CD4-CD8 Ratio; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000737:chemistry*; D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000737:chemistry*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D016693:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta / Q000032:analysis*; D016692:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, gamma-delta / Q000032:analysis*; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous
chemical_list: D017252:CD3 Complex; D016693:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta; D016692:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, gamma-delta