Reconstitution of antibody response after allogeneic bone marrow
transplantation: effect of lymphocyte depletion by counterflow centrifugal
elutriation on the expression of hemagglutinins
BM Bar, GW Santos and AD Donnenberg
Johns Hopkins Oncology Center Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit, Johns
Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD.
The generation of ABO hemagglutinins was used as a model to assess the
tempo of reconstitution of antibody responses in recipients of elutriated
(CCE) and nonelutriated (nonCCE) HLA matched bone marrow allografts. The
study included 29 CCE recipients (10 major, 6 minor, and 1 major/minor
ABO-mismatched, and 12 ABO-matched) and 40 nonCCE recipients (14 major, 12
minor, 2 major/minor, and 12 matched). Plasma volume in the graft and in
blood product transfusions was uncorrelated with changes in hemagglutinin
titers and therefore was excluded as a significant source of antibody.
Removal of graft lymphocytes by CCE did not result in prolongation of
host-derived hemagglutinins in recipients of major ABO-mismatched grafts.
However, CCE resulted in a complete abrogation of the adoptive transfer of
donor-derived antibody as detected in recipients of minor ABO-mismatched
grafts. Despite the absence of adoptively transferred donor immunity in
recipients of CCE grafts, they had hemagglutinin levels comparable with
those of recipients of nonCCE grafts by 6 months after transplantation.
This demonstrates that recipients of elutriated marrow were competent to
mount de novo responses at that time. The strong correlation between donor
pretransplant hemagglutinin titer and recipient titer 1 year after bone
marrow transplantation in recipients of nonCCE grafts suggests that even
late after transplant, antibody remains the product of adoptively
transferred memory cells in recipients of grafts containing large numbers
of mature lymphocytes.
Volume 76,
Issue 7,
pp. 1410-1418,
10/01/1990
Copyright © 1990 by The American Society of Hematology
