title: Blood leukocyte subsets and cytokine profile after autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation.
abstract: High-dose chemotherapy with autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT) includes the risk of infectious complications due to neutropenia and therapy-induced immune deviation. In order to understand early immune recovery in this situation, we analyzed the distribution of cell subsets by flow cytometry and we measured cytokine production in a whole blood assay stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in order to induce monocyte (MO) activation in 43 patients with solid tumors or lymphoma treated with two cycles of high-dose chemotherapy and PBSCT. Blood was collected at the following time points: before start of mobilization chemotherapy, before and after high-dose chemotherapy, and 10 and 30 days after PBSCT. In the lymphocyte compartment, we found a depletion of B cells and naive T cells and a transitory reduction of natural killer (NK) cells, whereas MO and neutrophils recovered rapidly. However, during early recovery, HLA-DR expression on MO and the percentage of CD16(+) MO was considerably reduced. Production of proinflammatory cytokines interleukin (IL)-1, IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha upon LPS stimulation was severely impaired directly after chemotherapy and unexpectedly remained low during early recovery of myeloid cells, whereas production of IL-1RA was enhanced, indicating a shift of immune competent cells to an anti-inflammatory or anergic state early after PBSCT.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology and Oncology, University of Regensburg, 93042 Regensburg, Germany. stefan.krause@klinik.uni-regensburg.de
authors.forename: S W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Krause
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rothe
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gnad
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Reichle
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Andreesen
mesh_terms: D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use; D016207:Cytokines / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D018380:Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D016130:Immunophenotyping; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides / Q000494:pharmacology; D016131:Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000276:immunology*; D008297:Male; D009000:Monocytes / Q000276:immunology; D018375:Neutrophil Activation / Q000187:drug effects / Q000276:immunology; D019172:Transplantation Conditioning; D014182:Transplantation, Autologous
chemical_list: D016207:Cytokines; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides