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Modulation of the T cell receptor beta chain repertoire after heart transplantation
K Doumaid1, P P van Miert, L M Vaessen
1Department of Immunobiology CLB, Academic Medical Centre, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Background:
In a previous study it was shown that pre-transplant blood transfusion was associated with a better clinical outcome after heart transplantation (HTx). In this study the effect of heart transplantation (HTx) on the T cell receptor V beta chain (TCRVbeta) repertoire was investigated. Therefore, we analyzed the TCRVbeta repertoire of patients after HTx to see whether a correlation with clinical outcome could be observed.
Methods:
Patients were analyzed at four different time points: pre-HTx, less than 1 month post-Htx, between 1 month and 2.5 month post-Htx and more than 2.5 months post-HTx. CD4+ and CD8+ T cells were purified from patient peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). TCR beta chain usage was analyzed semiquantitatively by Southern blot analysis.
Results:
HTx affected the TCRVbeta repertoire in both the CD4+ and CD8+ T cell compartments in all patients. Changes in the TCRVbeta repertoire were most pronounced within the CD8+ T cell subset. Interestingly, one patient showed modulation in TCRVbeta chain usage predominantly in the CD4+ T cell compartment.
Conclusions:
Modulation of TCRVbeta chain usage was detected in all patients analyzed. No clear-cut relation was observed between TCRVbeta modulation after transplantation and clinical outcome. In some cases modulations appeared to concur with observed immunological events (clinically and/or in-vitro).