Chemokine Receptor Signatures in Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation.

摘要

The purpose of this award is to define chemokine receptor signatures that contribute to lymphocyte trafficking into target organs in human graft-versus-host disease (GHVD). We use T-cell receptor deep sequencing to characterize the repertoire of effector T-cells in allogeneic hematopoietic stem-cell transplant (HSCT) recipients and identify the role of chemokine receptors in effector cell infiltration of target organs. In the recent funding period we studied blood and tissue samples from several allogeneic HSCT recipients and found that the clonal repertoire of CCR5+ T-cells was distinct from CCR5- T-cells, implying that CCR5 is a close-specific marker and not a general activation marker. We further characterized the clonal diversity and found that the asymmetry in clonal diversity of CCR5+ and CCR5- T-cells is characterized by specific Vgene usage. We are currently verifying this finding in additional patients and characterizing the presence CCR5+ clones in target organs of GVHD.