Recovery of T-lymphocytes for adoptive immunotherapy by lymphapheresis of HIV-infected patients without alterations of virological, immunological or clinical parameters.
We performed repeated continuous flow cytaphereses (CFC) on 13 asymptomatic HIV-1-infected patients to study the feasibility of cell separation procedures to recover high yields of peripheral blood T-lymphocytes for adoptive immunotherapy in HIV-infected patients and to determine immunological and virological alterations following such procedures. A mean yield of 6.23 x 10(9) lymphocytes could be obtained by each cytapheresis, containing 1.82 x 10(9) CD4+, 3.23 x 10(9) CD8+ T-lymphocytes and 8.39 x 10(6) CD34+ peripheral progenitor cells. The CD4/CD8 ratio (mean 0.53, SD +/- 0.15) in the cell samples reflected the distribution of the lymphocyte subsets in vivo. Absolute lymphocyte counts decreased at a mean of 404/mm3 (25%) immediately after CFC but were replaced from the extravascular pool within 1 h. The CD4/CD8 ratios, p24-antigenaemia, HLA-DR expression and neopterin levels did not change significantly after cell separation. No alteration of the number of T-cells with integrated proviral DNA copies (1/10(3) to 1/10(6)) could be detected in peripheral T-helper cells by PCR after lymphapheresis. We conclude that high yields of peripheral T-lymphocytes can be obtained by continuous flow lymphapheresis for cell-mediated immunotherapy, without deterioration of virological or immunological parameters in HIV-infected patients. The separated T-cells are fully replaced from extravascular pools after 1 h.
van Lunzen
J
J
Clinical Medicine Section, Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, Germany.
Schmitz
J
J
Dengler
K
K
Schmidt
L
L
Schmitz
H
H
Dietrich
M
M
D016516:CD4-CD8 Ratio; D002469:Cell Separation / Q000379:methods*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D015488:HIV Antigens / Q000276:immunology; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000276:immunology* / Q000628:therapy / Q000821:virology; D006801:Humans; D016219:Immunotherapy, Adoptive; D007937:Leukapheresis; D018655:Lymphocyte Count; D016176:T-Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000276:immunology; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D006377:T-Lymphocytes, Helper-Inducer / Q000276:immunology; D050378:T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory / Q000276:immunology
D015488:HIV Antigens