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This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Rights and Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Hebart, H. Articles by Einsele, H. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Hebart, H. Articles by Einsele, H. Related Collections Transplantation Immunotherapy Clinical Trials and Observations Social Bookmarking                   What's this?  Previous Article  |  Table of Contents  |  Next Article  Blood, 15 May 2002, Vol. 99, No. 10, pp. 3830-3837 TRANSPLANTATION Sensitive detection of human cytomegalovirus peptide-specific cytotoxic T-lymphocyte responses by interferon--enzyme-linked immunospot assay and flow cytometry in healthy individuals and in patients after allogeneic stem cell transplantation Holger Hebart, Senay Daginik, Stefan Stevanovic, Ulrich Grigoleit, Andrea Dobler, Manuela Baur, Georg Rauser, Christian Sinzger, Gerhard Jahn, Juergen Loeffler, Lothar Kanz, Hans-Georg Rammensee, and Hermann Einsele From Medizinische Klinik II, Institut für Zellbiologie, and Medizinische Virologie, Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, Germany. Reconstitution of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV)-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs), predominantly directed against pp65, provides protective immunity for the development of HCMV disease after allogeneic stem cell transplantation (SCT). To define pp65-derived CTL epitopes that would allow sensitive detection of HCMV-specific immune reconstitution, a computer-based epitope prediction was performed. Peptide-specific CTL responses were assessed by interferon- release. With this approach, pp65-derived epitopes presented by the HLA alleles A*0101, A*0201, A*1101, and B*0702 were identified. The frequency of CTLs in healthy HCMV-seropositive individuals ranged from about 0.1% to 3.3% of all CD8+ T cells. In patients at risk of HCMV infection after allogeneic SCT, HCMV-peptide-specific CTLs were found in 14 of 19 patients at a median of 90 days after SCT (range, 35-234 days) and HCMV-antigen-specific CD4+ T lymphocytes in 11 of 18 patients at a median of 90 days after SCT (range, 35->180 days). Peak counts of peptide-specific CD8+ T cells ranged from 0.14 to 60.6 cells/µL; those of protein-specific CD4+ T cells ranged from 0.64 to 18.97 cells/µL. Reconstitution of HCMV-peptide-specific CD8+ T cells and protein-specific CD4+ T cells was associated with clearance of HCMV infection (r2 = 0.89, P < .0001 and r2 = 0.61, P = .0045, respectively). HCMV infection recurred after documentation of HCMV-specific T-cell reconstitution (n = 4) when immunosuppression was intensified. Patients in whom late-onset HCMV disease developed lacked HCMV-protein-specific T cells at 3 months after SCT. In conclusion, prospective monitoring of HCMV-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell reconstitution can be performed rapidly by using flow cytometry after specific stimulation with HCMV peptides and proteins and might help to further improve clinical management of HCMV infection after allogeneic SCT. © 2002 by The American Society of Hematology.   CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

	Copyright © 2002 by American Society of Hematology         Online ISSN: 1528-0020