@Article{ecn.2009.0181,
AUTHOR = {Knut Liseth, Malvin Sjo, Kristin Paulsen, Øystein Bruserud, Elisabeth Ersvaer},
TITLE = {Early pre-engraftment, functional, in vitro responsiveness of T lymphocytes in allotransplanted, acute leukemia patients: proliferation and release of a broad profile of cytokines, possibly predictive of graft-versus-host disease},
JOURNAL = {European Cytokine Network},
VOLUME = {21},
YEAR = {2010},
NUMBER = {1},
PAGES = {40--49},
URL = {http://www.techscience.com/ECN/v21n1/65878},
ISSN = {1952-4005},
ABSTRACT = {Previous studies of T cell reconstitution following allogeneic stem cell transplantation have
described long-lasting T cell defects, including decreased levels of autocrine proliferating CD4+ T cells. However,
T cell functions during the early phase of conditioning-induced, pre-engraftment pancytopenia have not been
characterized previously. We used a whole blood assay to investigate T cell proliferation and cytokine release
during the period of pre-engraftment cytopenia. The study included 13 acute leukemia patients receiving mye-loablative
conditioning followed by transplantation of G-CSF-mobilised peripheral blood stem cells derived
from HLA-matched family donors. Maximal proliferation and cytokine release could not be reached by anti-CD3
stimulation alone, but was dependent on the presence of additional costimulation with anti-CD28. Circulat-ing
T cells showed a broad cytokine release profile after activation, and the highest levels were detected for
IFNγ, GM-CSF and IL-6. Correlation analyses showed that TNFα/IL-4/IL-5/IL-13 in particular were released
as a separate cluster, IFNγ and GM-CSF correlated strongly, whereas IL-17 showed a weak correlation to IL-6
only. The capacity of circulating T cells derived during pre-engraftment cytopenia to release high levels of IFNγ,
IL-6 and IL-17 in response to in vitro activation with anti-CD3+anti-CD28 showed statistically significant corre-lations
with later acute GVHD. We conclude that allotransplanted patients have a functional T cell system even
during the pre-engraftment period of severe pancytopenia.},
DOI = {10.1684/ecn.2009.0181}
}