title: Direct assessment of thymic reactivation after autologous stem cell transplantation.
abstract: Methods to quantify Th cell reconstitution after immunosuppressive therapies such as hematopoietic stem cell transplantation are becoming a key issue since persistent Th cell deficiencies may result in severe complications and adverse events. We employed here cytometric monitoring of CD31+ thymus-naive Th cells for the direct assessment of human thymic function in 10 patients undergoing autologous stem cell transplantation for severe autoimmune diseases. High frequencies of posttransplant recurring naive Th cells coexpressed CD31 and stable long-term reconstitution with elevated absolute counts of CD31+ thymus-naive Th cells that were enriched with T cell receptor excision circles was demonstrated. Cytometric monitoring of CD31+ thymus-naive Th cells enables to directly evaluate human thymic function ex vivo.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Immunology Group, Deutsches Rheuma-Forschungszentrum Berlin, Berlin, Germany. thiel@drfz.de
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Thiel
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Alexander
authors.forename: Christian A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.forename: Gregorsz K
authors.initials: GK
authors.lastname: Przybylski
authors.forename: Sonja
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kimmig
authors.forename: Siegfried
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kohler
authors.forename: Hartmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Radtke
authors.forename: Erika
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gromnica-Ihle
authors.forename: Gero
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Massenkeil
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Radbruch
authors.forename: Renate
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Arnold
authors.forename: Falk
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hiepe
mesh_terms: D001327:Autoimmune Diseases / Q000276:immunology / Q000601:surgery*; D001483:Base Sequence; D017931:DNA Primers; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D006801:Humans; D016130:Immunophenotyping; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic; D019408:Platelet Endothelial Cell Adhesion Molecule-1 / Q000276:immunology; D033581:Stem Cell Transplantation; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000276:immunology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D014182:Transplantation, Autologous
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D019408:Platelet Endothelial Cell Adhesion Molecule-1