To study the correlation of chemokine receptors expression on T lymphocyte subsets in recipients after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) with acute graft-versus-host disease (acute GVHD).
Forty-four recipients of family donor allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation were included in this study. According to the severity of acute GVHD, the recipients were divided into Grade II-IV acute GVHD group (n=16) and Grade 0-I acute GVHD group (n=28). Additionally,fifty healthy donors were also included in this study as the control group (n=50). The expression of chemokine receptors (CCR2,CCR5,CCR6,CCR7,CCR9 and CXCR3) on CD4+ and CD8+T cells in the peripheral blood after transplantation were detected using flow cytometry (FCM) respectively. The differences of the chemokine receptors expression between each group were compared.
In both Grade 0-I acute GVHD group (on the 30th day after transplantation) and Grade II-IV acute GVHD group (at the peak of GVHD), CCR5 expression was significantly higher than that in the control group (p<0.01), and the expression of CCR7 was significantly lower than that in the control group (p<0.01). However, compared with the Grade 0-I acute GVHD group, the Grade II-IV acute GVHD group showed lower CD4+/CD8+ cell ratio (0.36 ± 0.30 vs 0.76 ± 0.61, p=0.003), higher CD4+CCR5+ ratio (65.20 ± 20.17% vs 50.82 ± 28.59%, p=0.048), decreased expression of CCR6 and CCR7 on CD4+ T cells (17.02 ± 12.43% vs 34.69 ± 18.58%, p=0.006; 20.28 ± 4.37% vs 25.45 ± 10.47%, p=0.025).
Chemokine receptors on T cell subsets are involved in the pathogenesis of acute GVHD. Expression of chemokine receptors can be used as a powerful marker for early diagnosis and differential diagnosis of acute GVHD. And targeting chemokine receptors might be the new direction of prevention and treatment of acute GVHD.
No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.
