Abstract
Previous studies on regulatory T-cell (Treg) reconstitution after allogeneic hematopoietic SCT (HSCT) have suggested that, within the GVHD process, imbalance between effector T cells and Tregs may be more important than the absolute numbers of circulating Tregs. No study has analyzed naive vs memory Treg reconstitution in a longitudinal cohort with large numbers of patients. The reconstitution of total and subsets of Treg was prospectively analyzed by flow cytometry in 185 consecutive recipients at 3, 6, 12 and 24 months after allogeneic HSCT. The levels of total, naive and memory Tregs increased, mainly within the memory subset, but remained lower than healthy controls up to 2 years after transplantation. Reduced-intensity conditioning and peripheral blood (PBSC) as the source of stem cells were associated with better 3-month reconstitution. In multivariate analysis, PBSC, recipient age ⩽25 and no anti-thymoglobulin in the conditioning regimen were associated with a better Treg reconstitution. Naive Treg long-term reconstitution was mainly influenced by recipient age. Whereas prior acute GVHD impaired Treg reconstitution, Treg subsets (absolute numbers and frequencies relative to CD4+ T-cell subsets) at 3, 6 and 12 months after HSCT were not associated with the occurrence of a later episode of chronic GVHD.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $21.58 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Edinger M, Hoffmann P, Ermann J, Drago K, Fathman CG, Strober S et al. CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells preserve graft-versus-tumor activity while inhibiting graft-versus-host disease after bone marrow transplantation. Nat Med 2003; 9: 1144–1150.
Di Ianni M, Falzetti F, Carotti A, Terenzi A, Castellino F, Bonifacio E et al. Tregs prevent GVHD and promote immune reconstitution in HLA-haploidentical transplantation. Blood 2011; 117: 3921–3928.
Brunstein CG, Miller JS, Cao Q, McKenna DH, Hippen KL, Curtsinger J et al. Infusion of ex vivo expanded T regulatory cells in adults transplanted with umbilical cord blood: safety profile and detection kinetics. Blood 2011; 117: 1061–1070.
Ukena SN, Grosse J, Mischak-Weissinger E, Buchholz S, Stadler M, Ganser A et al. Acute but not chronic graft-versus-host disease is associated with a reduction of circulating CD4(+)CD25 (high)CD127 (low/-) regulatory T cells. Ann Hematol 2011; 90: 213–218.
Matthews K, Lim Z, Afzali B, Pearce L, Abdallah A, Kordasti S et al. Imbalance of effector and regulatory CD4 T cells is associated with graft-versus-host disease after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation using a reduced intensity conditioning regimen and alemtuzumab. Haematologica 2009; 94: 956–966.
Magenau JM, Qin X, Tawara I, Rogers CE, Kitko C, Schlough M et al. Frequency of CD4(+)CD25(hi)FOXP3(+) regulatory T cells has diagnostic and prognostic value as a biomarker for acute graft-versus-host-disease. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant 2010; 16: 907–914.
Matsuoka K, Kim HT, McDonough S, Bascug G, Warshauer B, Koreth J et al. Altered regulatory T cell homeostasis in patients with CD4+ lymphopenia following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. J Clin Invest 2010; 120: 1479–1493.
Miyara M, Yoshioka Y, Kitoh A, Shima T, Wing K, Niwa A et al. Functional delineation and differentiation dynamics of human CD4+ T cells expressing the FoxP3 transcription factor. Immunity 2009; 30: 899–911.
Corre E, Carmagnat M, Busson M, de Latour RP, Robin M, Ribaud P et al. Long-term immune deficiency after allogeneic stem cell transplantation: B-cell deficiency is associated with late infections. Haematologica 2010; 95: 1025–1029.
Liu W, Putnam AL, Xu-Yu Z, Szot GL, Lee MR, Zhu S et al. CD127 expression inversely correlates with FoxP3 and suppressive function of human CD4+ T reg cells. J Exp Med 2006; 203: 1701–1711.
Sallusto F, Lenig D, Forster R, Lipp M, Lanzavecchia A . Two subsets of memory T lymphocytes with distinct homing potentials and effector functions. Nature 1999; 401: 708–712.
Charrier E, Cordeiro P, Brito RM, Mezziani S, Herblot S, Le Deist F et al. Reconstitution of maturating and regulatory lymphocyte subsets after cord blood and BMT in children. Bone Marrow Transplant 2013; 48: 376–382.
Kanda J, Chiou LW, Szabolcs P, Sempowski GD, Rizzieri DA, Long GD et al. Immune recovery in adult patients after myeloablative dual umbilical cord blood, matched sibling, and matched unrelated donor hematopoietic cell transplantation. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant 2012; 18: 1664–1676 e1.
Jacobson CA, Turki AT, McDonough SM, Stevenson KE, Kim HT, Kao G et al. Immune reconstitution after double umbilical cord blood stem cell transplantation: comparison with unrelated peripheral blood stem cell transplantation. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant 2012; 18: 565–574.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Xhaard, A., Moins-Teisserenc, H., Busson, M. et al. Reconstitution of regulatory T-cell subsets after allogeneic hematopoietic SCT. Bone Marrow Transplant 49, 1089–1092 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/bmt.2014.105
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/bmt.2014.105
This article is cited by
-
High proportion of terminally differentiated regulatory T cells after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
Bone Marrow Transplantation (2021)
-
Relationship of post-transplant thymopoiesis with CD4+FoxP3+ regulatory T cell recovery associated with freedom from chronic graft versus host disease
Bone Marrow Transplantation (2019)
-
Immune-Mediated Cytopenias After Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation: Pathophysiology, Clinical Manifestations, Diagnosis, and Treatment Strategies
Current Oncology Reports (2019)
-
Impaired B cell immunity in acute myeloid leukemia patients after chemotherapy
Journal of Translational Medicine (2017)
-
Immune reconstitution in patients with acquired severe aplastic anemia after haploidentical stem cell transplantation
Bone Marrow Transplantation (2017)