Kinetics of dendritic cell chimerism and T cell chimerism in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell recipients.
Dendritic cells (DC) as potent antigen-presenting cells (APC) and T cells as effector cells play an essential role in the pathophysiology of both graft-versus-host (GvH) and graft-versus-leukemia (GvL) reactions after transplantation. Therefore, we determined the kinetics of DC and T-cell chimerism establishment after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (AHCT) in a group of 144 patients, using fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) or magnetic cell sorting (MACS) followed by FISH or STR-PCR analysis for chimerism evaluation. In all, three cell lines investigated (CD3(+) T cells, CD11c(+) DC1 and CD123(+) DC2), we found a rapid and consistent establishment of complete donor chimerism (CDC) in over 70% of all patients during the first 6 weeks after AHCT. The rate of patients with CDC increased significantly over time within the first year after transplantation. A related donor (P=0.004) as well as an underlying lymphatic leukemia (P=0.03) were found to be significantly associated with development of MC in T cells. No significant correlation between DC or T cell chimerism and GvHD or relapse was detected. Our results thus demonstrate a fast and stable CDC in DC1, DC2 and T cells after AHCT that continuously increases over time in nearly all patients.
Boeck
S
S
Department of Internal Medicine III, Klinikum Grosshadern, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Munich, Germany. stefan.boeck@med.uni-muenchen.de
Hamann
M
M
Pihusch
V
V
Heller
T
T
Diem
H
H
Rolf
B
B
Pihusch
R
R
Kolb
H-J
HJ
Pihusch
M
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D017951:Antigen Presentation / Q000276:immunology; D003713:Dendritic Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D006086:Graft vs Host Disease / Q000276:immunology; D020544:Graft vs Leukemia Effect / Q000276:immunology; D019337:Hematologic Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy*; D018380:Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology*; D018183:Transplantation Chimera / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology*; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous