Acute graft-versus-host disease after bone marrow transplantation with a single HLA-DPB1*1001 mismatch: involvement of different TCRBV subsets

Abstract

HLA-DP incompatibility is not considered as an exclusion criterion for bone marrow donors, because such incompatibility was not shown to affect significantly the risk for acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). In line with this clinical observation, it was proposed that in the context of bone marrow transplantation, HLA-DP determinants did not function as transplantation antigens in the same way as HLA-A, -B or -DR. In contrast to the above conclusion, we recently demonstrated the presence of HLA-DPB1*0501 specific T cell clones in a skin biopsy of a patient who developed aGVHD after receiving a bone marrow transplant (BMT) in which the only mismatched allele in the GVHD direction was HLA-DPB1*0501. At that time, this case was unique and occurred in a relatively uncommon graft setting where the patient received purified CD34⁺ BM cells from an unrelated donor. In the present study, we analyzed the immunological events associated with an aGVHD which occurred in the context of a ‘regular’ allogeneic BMT involving a single HLA-DPB1*1001 mismatch between donor and recipient in the GVHD direction. To this end, we analyzed several amplified T cell subsets present within a T cell line derived from a skin biopsy performed at the onset of GVHD. Our results demonstrated that T cell populations belonging to the TCRBV2, TCRB6.7, TCRBV14 and TCRBV17 subsets were specific for the HLA-DPB1*1001 mismatched allele. These data strengthen and generalize our first conclusion that a single HLA-DP mismatch between donor and recipient can activate a strong T cell response in vivo and consequently challenge the notion that HLA-DP incompatibility should not be taken into account in the choice of BM donors. Moreover, they also underline the idea that HLA-DP antigens may represent an interesting immune target for future therapeutic approaches.