Alloantigen affinity and CD4 help determine severity of graft-versus-host disease mediated by CD8 donor T cells

TCR affinity dictates T cell selection in the thymus and also has a high impact on the fate of peripheral T cells. Graft-vs-host disease (GVHD) is a pathological process initiated by activation of donor T cells after adoptive transfer into an allogeneic recipient. How TCR affinity affects the potential of alloreactive T cells to induce GVHD is unclear. Using alloreactive CD4+ and CD8+ TCR transgenic (Tg) T cells, GVHD models are presented that allow for the visualization of how CD8+ alloreactive T cells behave in response to alloantigens with different TCR affinity in the absence or presence of CD4 help. In a nonmyeloablative transplant model where GVHD lethality is due to marrow aplasia, alloreactive CD8+ TCR Tg T cells induced significantly more severe GVHD in the recipients that express an intermediate-affinity alloantigen than in the recipients that express a high-affinity alloantigen. In a myeloablative transplant model where GVHD lethality is due to epithelium injury, CD8+ TCR Tg cells were also more pathogenic in the recipients with an intermediate-affinity alloantigen than in those with a high-affinity alloantigen. The presence of alloreactive CD4+ TCR Tg cells enhanced the potential of CD8+ TCR Tg cells to cause GVHD in recipients with an intermediate-, but not with a high-, affinity alloantigen. These findings underscore that alloantigen affinity and CD4 help control the fate and pathogenicity of alloreactive CD8+ T cells in vivo.