Nakamura K, Amakawa R, Takebayashi M, Son Y, Miyaji M, Tajima K, Nakai K, Ito T, Matsumoto N, Zen K, Kishimoto Y, Fukuhara S
1st Department of Internal Medicine, Kansai Medical University, Moriguchi, Osaka, Japan.
Bone Marrow Transplant. 2005 Oct;36(7):639-47. doi: 10.1038/sj.bmt.1705107.
Chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) occurs in approximately 60-80% of those who survive over 100 days after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). However, the pathophysiology of cGVHD is poorly understood. To gain more insight into the immunological mechanism of cGVHD, we examine cytokine production of peripheral blood T cells from 19 patients in the chronic phase of allo-HSCT. The percentage of IFN-gamma-producing CD8(+) T cells among CD8(+) T cells was significantly higher in patients with or without cGVHD than in normal control subjects (P<0.001). On the other hand, the percentage of IL-4-producing CD8(+) T cells among CD8(+) T cells was significantly higher in patients with cGVHD (mean 3.3%; range 1.3-8.2%) than in patients without cGVHD (mean 1.2%; range 0.8-1.7%) and normal control subjects (mean 1.1%; range 0.1-1.6%) (both P<0.001). By contrast, the percentage of IL-4-producing CD4(+) T cells was not different among patients with and without cGVHD and normal controls. These findings suggest that IL-4-producing CD8(+) T cells may be an immunological marker of cGVHD.
慢性移植物抗宿主病（cGVHD）发生在异基因造血干细胞移植（allo-HSCT）后存活超过100天的患者中，发生率约为60%-80%。然而，cGVHD的病理生理学仍知之甚少。为了更深入了解cGVHD的免疫机制，我们检测了19例处于allo-HSCT慢性期患者外周血T细胞的细胞因子产生情况。无论有无cGVHD，患者CD8(+) T细胞中产生IFN-γ的CD8(+) T细胞百分比均显著高于正常对照受试者（P<0.001）。另一方面，cGVHD患者CD8(+) T细胞中产生IL-4的CD8(+) T细胞百分比（平均3.3%；范围1.3%-8.2%）显著高于无cGVHD患者（平均1.2%；范围0.8%-1.7%）和正常对照受试者（平均1.1%；范围0.1%-1.6%）（P均<0.001）。相比之下，有无cGVHD患者及正常对照中产生IL-4的CD4(+) T细胞百分比无差异。这些发现表明，产生IL-4的CD8(+) T细胞可能是cGVHD的一个免疫标志物。
