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Blood, Vol. 96 No. 3 (August 1), 2000:
pp. 1144-1149
TRANSFUSION MEDICINE
From the Department of Medicine, Rhode Island Hospital and Brown
University, Providence, RI.
The encounter with allogeneic major histocompatibility complex (MHC)
molecules expressed on donor leukocytes during transfusion of blood
products has been shown to impact the recipient's immune responses in
a number of settings. To better understand the responses induced by the
transfer of allogeneic cells, a murine model was used to characterize
the recipient responses that control the fate of the allogeneic
lymphoid cells. Recipient CD8+ cells could rapidly
eliminate a large number of donor cells within 3 days after injection.
When elimination responses were studied in the absence of
CD8+ cells, it was found that alloantibody production was
the secondary elimination mechanism. Optimal recipient
CD8+ and B cell responses in this model required help
from CD4+ cells that could be provided by 3 different
pathways. Although recipient CD4+ cells could provide
help when activated by direct recognition of allogeneic MHC class II
molecules expressed on donor cells or by indirect recognition
of processed alloantigen presented on recipient
antigen-presenting cells (APCs), the most rapid recipient responses
were generated by help provided by donor CD4+ cells.
Purified donor CD4+ cells were also able to induce these
rapid responses, indicating that activated donor CD4+
cells expressing allogeneic MHC molecules were able to effectively stimulate responses by both recipient CD8+ and B cells.
(Blood. 2000;96:1144-1149)
Immune responses to allogeneic major histocompatibility
complex (MHC) molecules are unique because of the high frequency of T
cells that respond to these antigens. In vivo, the human immune system
encounters alloantigen during pregnancy and after the transfusion of
blood products or transplantation. The immune responses to alloantigen
in these settings can have a number of immunologic consequences. For
example, blood transfusion has been shown to result in the production
of alloantibodies,1 increased incidence of bacterial
infection,2 increased risk of tumor relapse especially for
certain categories of tumors,2 transfusion associated
graft-versus-host disease,3 prolonged allograft
survival,4 antileukemic responses,5 and
reversal of recurrent spontaneous abortion in some women.6 These findings have raised questions about the mechanism by which a
blood transfusion can affect all these responses. To define this
mechanism, investigators have begun to study some of the immune
responses such as the production of cytokines that are induced by
transfusion. Although there may be cytokines already present in the
stored blood product,7 several studies have suggested that
blood transfusion preferentially produces Th2 cytokines such as IL-4
and IL-10.8-10 In the murine model, the transfusion of
intact cells appeared to induce both Th1 and Th2 cytokines, whereas
transfusion of apoptotic cells appeared to preferentially induce Th2
cytokines.11 This has led to the hypothesis that transfusion influences immune responses by preferentially producing Th2
cytokines.12
Posttransfusion responses also have been studied by measuring the fate
of the donor leukocytes. It was found that 99.9% of the leukocytes are
eliminated within 2 days after a blood transfusion, with the residual
cells being eliminated by day 6.13 Similar elimination
times were reported in the canine and murine model.13-15 To
study the immune responses that result from the transfer of allogeneic
cells, it was decided to characterize the mechanisms responsible for
the elimination of allogeneic donor cells. A murine model was chosen
for these studies because it is often difficult in human patients to
distinguish the responses caused by transfusion from those responses
caused by the underlying condition that requires the transfusion. An
additional advantage of the murine model is the ability to carefully
control donor/recipient combinations by using inbred as well as
knockout (KO) or transgenic strains. Initial experiments confirmed that
a large number of fully allogeneic donor splenocytes were eliminated
within 3 days by naive murine recipients.16 This rapid
elimination was found to be mediated by recipient CD8+
cells predominantly with the use of the perforin pathway for lysis of
the donor cells.16 This paper shows that alloantibody production is the secondary mechanism of elimination in the absence of
CD8+ cells.
These findings raised the question of the role of CD4+
cells in regulating the recipient CD8+ and B-cell responses
in this model. CD4+ cells have been shown to be activated
in response to alloantigens using 2 different pathways. The first
pathway is a direct recognition of allogeneic MHC II antigens on donor
cells. The second pathway is the indirect recognition of peptides of
processed alloantigen presented by self-MHC II molecules on recipient
antigen-presenting cells
(APCs). Both of these
pathways have been shown to provide help for the induction of
CD8+ and B-cell responses after transplantation in
vivo.17-19 Although help for recipient CD8+ and
B-cell responses to allogeneic donor cells could be provided by
recipient CD4+ cells that had been activated by either the
direct or indirect pathway, the most efficient help for both recipient
CD8+ and B-cell responses in this model system was found to
be provided by activated donor CD4+ cells. The same results
were found when purified donor CD4+ cells were used
indicating that activated CD4+ cells are effective APCs
when the antigen being recognized is the allogeneic MHC molecules
expressed on their cell surface.
Mice
Antibodies
Injection of donor cells and assay of recipient responses
Measurement of alloantibody production The level of alloantibody was assessed by measuring the ability of plasma to stain thymocytes from the donor strain.11 Thymocytes were prepared from the appropriate strain and reconstituted at 50 × 106 cells/mL in diluent (phosphate-buffered saline [PBS], containing 0.5% bovine serum albumin [BSA] and 0.1% sodium azide). Ten microliters of cells were incubated with 20 µL of plasma diluted 1:5 with diluent for 30 minutes on ice. After 2 washes with diluent, the thymocytes were incubated with FITC conjugates of goat antimouse IgM, IgG, IgG1, and IgG2a (Zymed, San Francisco, CA, 20 µL of a 1: 20 dilution) for 30 minutes on ice. Then the cells were washed twice and fixed with freshly prepared 0.5% paraformaldehyde. As controls, thymocytes were stained with plasma obtained from naive recipients. The samples were analyzed using a FACScan. The mean fluorescence channel number was obtained for each sample. The results are reported as the increase in mean channel number seen in the experimental sample compared with the control sample. The higher the increase in the mean channel number, the greater the concentration of alloantibodies in the plasma.
Alloantibody production is the secondary donor cell elimination mechanism to recipient CD8+ cells In previous experiments in which 1 spleen equivalent of fully allogeneic donor cells were injected per recipient, it was found that all donor cells were eliminated by 3 days after injection.16 This rapid elimination was shown to be mediated by recipient CD8+ cells using the perforin pathway as the major lytic pathway although the Fas/Fas ligand pathway and the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) pathway were also used to some degree in the absence of the perforin pathway. This rapid elimination pathway was driven by differences in the MHC and required both MHC class I and II differences to get effective elimination.16 To examine whether the recipient CD8+ cells were the only effector mechanism responsible for the elimination of allogeneic donor splenocytes, the ability of CD8 KO mice to eliminate allogeneic donor splenocytes was measured. It was found that complete elimination of donor cells by CD8 KO mice was delayed from day 3 to day 6(Figure 1A). These results indicated that an elimination mechanism other than recipient CD8+ cells was operating. Because preliminary experiments had shown that alloantibody-coated donor splenocytes were eliminated within 48 hours after injection (data not shown), the presence of IgG alloantibodies in the plasma of the same recipient CD8 KO mice was tested. The appearance of alloantibodies was found to be concordant with the elimination of the donor cells in these mice (Figure 1A). To confirm the role of alloantibodies in eliminating the donor cells, the elimination of allogeneic donor cells was tested in recipient mice lacking B cells (B-less). Higher percentages of donor cells were observed in these recipients because of the smaller number of recipient spleen cells per mouse. Despite the lack of B cells in the spleen, these B-less recipient mice were able to rapidly eliminate allogeneic donor splenocytes by day 3 (Figure 1B). This was not surprising as the B-less mice did not lack CD8+ cells. Thus, to test whether alloantibodies were involved in elimination of allogeneic cells, the B-less mice would have to be depleted of CD8+ cells. The depletion of CD8+ cells was achieved by 1 or more injections of anti-CD8 and the ability of these CD8-depleted, B-less recipients to eliminate allogeneic cells was tested. The anti-CD8 that was used was allele-specific (anti-Ly 2.2) so that only recipient CD8+ cells would be bound by the antibody. The results indicated that there was prolonged persistence of the donor cells in these CD8-depleted recipient mice lacking B cells (compare Figure 1A with Figure 1C). Recipient CD8+ cells had started reappearing by day 7 after a single injection of anti-CD8 on day 1 (data not shown), thus the B-less mice were given injections
of anti-CD8 on days 1 and 3 in a second experiment. The multiple
injections of anti-CD8 resulted in even longer persistence of the donor
cells (Figure 1C). One recipient B-less mouse that had been injected
twice with anti-CD8 exhibited detectable donor antirecipient
CTL (cytolytic T lymphocyte) on day 10 (data not shown),
indicating that there was sufficient persistence of donor cells to
induce graft-versus-host responses. These results confirmed the role of
alloantibody production as the secondary elimination mechanism and also
indicated that recipient CD4+ cells did not play a major
role in directly eliminating donor cells.
The requirement for CD4+ cell help for optimal recipient CD8+ and B-cell responses The studies completed to this point had shown that recipient CD8+ and B-cell responses were responsible for the elimination of allogeneic donor cells but had not tested whether these cells were able to mount these responses by themselves or required help. To test whether CD4+ cells played any role in facilitating these elimination responses, donor cells were obtained from mice depleted of CD4+ cells by administration of anti-CD4 and injected into recipient mice depleted of CD4+ cells in a similar fashion. The results of these experiments indicated that the elimination of donor cells was delayed in a donor/recipient combination-dependent fashion in absence of functional CD4+ cells (Figure 2).
Help from CD4+ cells for elimination responses
can be provided using 3 different pathways
Purified donor CD4+ cells are able facilitate
rapid elimination of themselves
These studies demonstrate that activated donor
CD4+ cells expressing allogeneic MHC class I molecules on
their cell surface are able to directly induce the activation of both
recipient CD8+ and B cells in response to these
alloantigens. This activation pathway induces the most rapid in vivo
responses by the recipient CD8+ cells and B cells. When
donor cells enter the spleen, they are emptied into the red pulp that
contains a high density of MHC II-expressing cells, including
macrophages and dendritic cells. This environment should provide ample
opportunity for the alloreactive donor CD4+ cells to
encounter recipient MHC II molecules and become activated. This high
probability of alloreactive donor CD4+ cell activation,
combined with the ability of the activated CD4+ cells to
effectively present alloantigen, could provide an explanation for the
rapidity of the recipient cell response.
I would like to thank Jacqui Poore for her excellent technical assistance.
Submitted October 19, 1999; accepted March 30, 2000.
Supported by funding from the National Blood Foundation, Rhode
Island Hospital, and NHLBI grant HL59241.
Reprints: Loren D. Fast, Division of Clinical Hematology, Rhode
Island Hospital, 593 Eddy St, Providence, RI 02903; e-mail:
loren_fast{at}brown.edu.
The publication costs of this
article were defrayed in part by
page charge payment. Therefore,
and solely to indicate this fact,
this article is hereby marked
"advertisement"
in accordance with 18 U.S.C.
section 1734.
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