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Post-Transplant Events

A potential role for B cells in suppressed immune responses in cord blood transplant recipients

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 48, pages 85–93 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

We evaluated immune reconstitution in 58 adults who received hematopoietic SCTs from allogeneic siblings (allosib), matched unrelated donors (MUD) or cord blood (CB) at 90-day intervals for 1 year post transplant. CB recipients had a higher incidence of infections in the first 100 days compared with allosib and MUD recipients. The number of circulating T cells was lower in CB recipients compared with MUD recipients at 90 days and compared with allosib recipients at 180 days. Spectratype analysis of the TCR Vβ complementarity determining region 3 (CDR3) of patient lymphocytes revealed that the TCR repertoire remained poorly diversified even at 360 days in nearly all patients. In contrast, the number of circulating B cells was significantly elevated in CB recipients compared with allosib recipients throughout the first year post transplant and compared with MUD recipients at 9–12 months. Spectratype analysis of the B-cell receptor VH CDR3 showed that the B-cell repertoire was diversified in most patients by 90 days. CD5pos B cells from assayed CB recipients expressed intracellular IL-10 early post transplant. Our data suggest that B cells, in addition to T cells, may have a role in impaired immune responses in CB transplant patients.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Shi-kang Zhai for expert technical assistance with PCR and DNA sequencing and Patricia Simms of the flow cytometry core facility for assistance with data acquisition and analysis. We thank Karen Rychlik of the Biostatistics core facility for assistance with statistical analyses. We are indebted to the Division of Hematology/Oncology staff for consenting patients, collecting blood and organizing data. This work was supported by the Illinois Regenerative Medicine Institute (63080019 to PJS), and the National Institutes of Health Grants (AG023809 to PTL), (AI068390 to KLK) and (NHLBI F32HL096278 to BCBZ). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute or the National Institutes of Health.

Author contributions: BCBZ wrote the manuscript, performed the research and analyzed the data; PTL and KLK designed the research study and critically reviewed the manuscript; S Zhang performed the research and analyzed the data; SZ consented patients and collected data; MP collected and analyzed data; and PJS designed the research study, consented patients and critically reviewed the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Stritch School of Medicine, Loyola University Chicago, Maywood, IL, USA

    B C Beaudette-Zlatanova, P T Le, K L Knight & S Zhang

  2. Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology, Stritch School of Medicine, Loyola University Chicago, Maywood, IL, USA

    S Zakrzewski, M Parthasarathy & P J Stiff

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  1. B C Beaudette-Zlatanova
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Correspondence to P J Stiff.

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Beaudette-Zlatanova, B., Le, P., Knight, K. et al. A potential role for B cells in suppressed immune responses in cord blood transplant recipients. Bone Marrow Transplant 48, 85–93 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/bmt.2012.104

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