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Cell Procurement

Functional analysis of cytomegalovirus-specific T lymphocytes compared to tetramer assay in patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 41, pages 515–521 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

In order to evaluate whether we could predict reactivation of CMV by monitoring the number of CMV-specific cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTL), tetramer analysis was performed in 37 patients who underwent hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). The results disclosed that the mean number of CMV-specific CTL at day 30 did not differ among patients who developed CMV antigenemia (22/μl) and those who did not (12/μl). Serial tetramer analysis showed that 21% of the patients had >10/μl CMV-specific CTL at the first detection of CMV antigenemia and 67% of the patients had more than 10/μl CMV-specific CTL at the onset of CMV disease. Intracellular staining upon stimulation by CMV lysates and peptide in patients with CMV colitis revealed that both IFN-γ producing CD4+ and CD8+ lymphocytes were suppressed at the onset of CMV colitis (1.6 and 8/μl), which increased with recovery of the disease (19 and 47/μl). These data suggest that it is difficult to predict CMV reactivation solely by the number of CMV-specific CTL. We suggest that additional functional analysis by intracellular cytokine assay may be useful for immunomonitoring against CMV.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Oncology, National Cancer Center Hospital, Tokyo, Japan

    Y Morita-Hoshi, Y Heike, M Kawakami, S-W Kim, S-I Mori, T Fukuda, R Tanosaki, K Tobinai & Y Takaue

  2. Department of Hematology and Oncology, Graduate School of Medicine, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo, Japan

    Y Morita-Hoshi & O Miura

  3. Cellular Immunology Section, SRL Inc., Hachioji-city, Tokyo, Japan

    T Sugita

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  1. Y Morita-Hoshi
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Correspondence to Y Takaue.

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Morita-Hoshi, Y., Heike, Y., Kawakami, M. et al. Functional analysis of cytomegalovirus-specific T lymphocytes compared to tetramer assay in patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Bone Marrow Transplant 41, 515–521 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bmt.1705932

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