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  • Original Article
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Immunology

Involvement of mature donor T cells in the NK cell reconstitution after haploidentical hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation

Leukemia volume 22, pages 344–352 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

We previously demonstrated that natural killer (NK) cells generated after haploidentical stem-cell transplantation (SCT) are blocked at an immature state characterized by phenotypic features and impaired functioning and that this may affect transplantation outcome. We hypothesize that the absence of mature donor T cells in the graft may affect NK cell differentiation. NK cells from 21 transplant recipients who underwent either partial (pTCD; n=11) or extensive (eTCD; n=10) T-cell depletion were compared with NK cells from their healthy donors. We report that despite the strong graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) reaction, pTCD patients, with T cells present during SCT, had a better clinical outcome than patients with eTCD transplants. In addition, the frequency of CD3−CD56bright and NKG2A+ NK cells was much lower in pTCD than in eTCD patients after transplantation, and the level of cytotoxicity against primary haplo-mismatched blasts was significantly more pronounced after pTCD than eTCD transplants. These finding strongly suggest that mature donor T cells in the graft may play a key role in NK cell differentiation in vivo, after haploidentical SCT.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Hélène Jouault (Service d'Hématologie, Hôpital Henri Mondor, Créteil, France) for her help in facilitating the collection of clinical data. This study was supported by charitable grants from the Association Cent pour Sang la Vie, the Fondation de France and from the French Healthy Ministry (PHRC 1995). SN was supported by a fellowship from the Caisse Nationale d'Assurance Maladie des Professions Indépendantes (CANAM)/Assistance Publique et Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire d'Immunologie Cellulaire et Tissulaire, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) U543, Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière, Paris, France

    S Nguyen, P Debré & V Vieillard

  2. Service d'Hématologie Clinique, Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière, Paris, France

    S Nguyen, J-P Vernant & N Dhedin

  3. Service d'Hématologie Clinique, Hôpital Henri Mondor, Créteil, France

    M Kuentz

  4. Service d'Hématologie, Hôpital Henri Mondor, Créteil, France

    D Bories

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Correspondence to V Vieillard.

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Nguyen, S., Kuentz, M., Vernant, JP. et al. Involvement of mature donor T cells in the NK cell reconstitution after haploidentical hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation. Leukemia 22, 344–352 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2405041

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