  
Donor T cell reactivity against host keratinocytes predicts GVHD
Last Updated: 2001-02-07 19:30:50 EST (Reuters Health)
WESTPORT, CT (Reuters Health) - Among patients undergoing bone marrow transplantation, graft versus host disease (GVHD) is predicted more accurately by the reactivity of donor T cells to host keratinocytes than to host blood cells, according to researchers in the Netherlands.
In a study of 27 patients undergoing an HLA-identical bone marrow transplant (partially depleted for T cells) for hematologic tumors, Dr. Henny G. Otten from University Medical Center Utrecht, and colleagues assayed donor T cells stimulated with patient keratinocytes, or peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), and related the results to the occurrence of GVHD.
Keratinocytes were cultured with interferon-gamma to induce expression of HLA class II, and an anti-CD28 antibody was added to assays involving keratinocytes to make up for their lack of co-stimulatory molecules. The researchers determined the donor T cell reactivity using the helper T-lymphocyte precursor (HTLp) frequency.
As they report in the December issue of the British Journal of Haematology, the HTLp frequency against patient PBMCs was similar in patients with and without GVHD. However, there were significant differences in the HTLp frequency against patient keratinocytes in patients without and without GVHD, with the frequencies being significantly lower in patients without GVHD.
"Donor HTLp frequencies against patient keratinocytes give a better prediction of GVHD than those against patient haemopoietic cells following HLA-identical bone marrow transplant, which may indicate that at least some minor non-HLA histocompatibility antigens present on keratinocytes are different from those on haemopoietic cells," Dr. Otten and colleagues conclude.
Br J Haematol 2000;111:791-796.
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