Alterations of T cell repertoire after bone marrow transplantation: characterization of over-represented subsets.
We recently demonstrated that frequencies of T cell receptor-V (TcR-V)-specific subsets are frequently altered after both allogeneic and autologous BMT. The data reported here describe several characteristics of altered T cell subsets: (i) their capacity to endure peripherally, (ii) their correspondence to clonal donor T cell subsets, (iii) the origin of the clone (in one case amenable to analysis) from a mature T cell and not from new lymphopoiesis, and (iv) the presence of such a clone throughout a year of follow-up in a patient with chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) in whom it represented up to 1/10th of CD3+ peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) and was found to be host-reactive. Taken together, these findings provide direct evidence for the oligoclonality of a large proportion of the peripheral T cell repertoire in patients subsequent to bone marrow transplantation, possibly accounting for their frequent depressed immune status. Moreover, the anti-host reactivity demonstrated in a clone from the patient with chronic GVHD strongly suggests that an oligoclonal response can be linked to a pathological process.
INSERM U211, Institut de Biologie, Nantes, France.
J
J
Gaschet
C
C
Denis
N
N
Milpied
M M
MM
Hallet
F
F
Romagné
A
A
Necker
R
R
Vivien
J
J
David-Ameline
F
F
Davodeau
M
M
Bonneville
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001483:Base Sequence; D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation / Q000276:immunology*; D002455:Cell Division; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002999:Clone Cells / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007135:Immunoglobulin Variable Region / Q000276:immunology; D016130:Immunophenotyping; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016693:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta / Q000276:immunology*; D016176:T-Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000276:immunology*; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology
D007135:Immunoglobulin Variable Region; D016693:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta