title: Immune reconstitution is preserved in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation coadministered with regulatory T cells for GVHD prevention.
abstract: Recipient-specific regulatory T cells (rsTreg) can prevent graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) by inhibiting donor T-cell expansion after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) in mice. Importantly, in adult humans, because of thymus involution, immune reconstitution during the first months after HSCT relies on the peripheral expansion of donor T cells initially present in the graft. Therefore, we developed a mouse model of HSCT that excludes thymic output to study the effect of rsTreg on immune reconstitution derived from postthymic mature T cells present within the graft. We showed that GVHD prevention with rsTreg was associated with improvement of the limited immune reconstitution compared with GVHD mice in terms of cell numbers, activation phenotype, and cytokine production. We further demonstrated a preserved in vivo immune function using vaccinia infection and third-party skin-graft rejection models, suggesting that rsTreg immunosuppression was relatively specific of GVHD. Finally, we showed that rsTreg extensively proliferated during the first 2 weeks and then declined. In turn, donor Treg proliferated from day 15 on. Taken together, these results suggest that rsTreg GVHD prevention is associated with improved early immune reconstitution in a model that more closely approximates the biology of allogeneic HSCT in human adults.
authors.affiliation: Immunology-Immunopathology-Immunotherapy (I3), Université Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC), Université Paris 06, Unité Mixte de Recherche (UMR) 7211, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Aline
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gaidot
authors.forename: Dan Avi
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Landau
authors.forename: Gaëlle Hélène
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: Olivia
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Bonduelle
authors.forename: Yenkel
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Grinberg-Bleyer
authors.forename: Diana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Matheoud
authors.forename: Sylvie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Grégoire
authors.forename: Claude
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Baillou
authors.forename: Béhazine
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Combadière
authors.forename: Eliane
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Piaggio
authors.forename: José Laurent
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Cohen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006086:Graft vs Host Disease / Q000276:immunology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D018380:Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D050378:T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory / Q000276:immunology* / Q000637:transplantation*