Immunophenotypic shift of memory CD8 T cells identifies the changes of immune status in the patients after liver transplantation

Abstract

Objective: Chronic or acute rejection is a leading cause of allograft loss after solid organ transplantation and the presence of memory T cells is associated with increased propensity for allograft rejection. The purpose of this study was to investigate the correlation between immunophenotypic shift of memory CD8⁺ T cells and immune status in the patients after liver transplantation. Material and methods: Seventy-three blood samples were collected and varied compartments of memory CD8⁺ T cells were analysed in non-rejected and rejected patients. Results: The results show that with time elapsed, the immunophenotypes of memory CD8⁺ cells shifted from naive T cells to central or intermediate memory cells, and then to effector or terminal memory cells in non-rejected patients. This course was correlated with the expression of CD127 on CD8⁺ T cells. In rejected patients, the main proportion of CD8⁺ cells were dominated by naive CD8⁺ cells and then rapidly restored to the immunophenotypes of memory T cells after effective treatment. Conclusion: These results demonstrated that immunophenotypic shift of memory CD8⁺ T cells was closely related to the change of the immune status in the patients after liver transplantation. Monitoring the immunophenotypic shift of memory CD8⁺ T cells is of great importance in the prediction for allograft rejection and treatment effectiveness after liver transplantation.

Key Words::

• Memory T cells
• immune status
• rejection
• liver transplantation
• immunophenotypic shift

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Expression of concern

Acknowledgements

This work was awarded a grant from the National Program on Key Basic Research Project (973 Program, 2003CB515501) and Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang province (Y205173).

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.