title: Kinetics of dendritic cell chimerism and T cell chimerism in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell recipients.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine III, Klinikum Grosshadern, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Munich, Germany. stefan.boeck@med.uni-muenchen.de
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Boeck
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hamann
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Pihusch
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Heller
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Diem
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rolf
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pihusch
authors.forename: H-J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Kolb
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pihusch
mesh_terms: 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