Modulation of the T cell receptor beta chain repertoire after heart transplantation.

Background: In a previous study it was shown that pre-transplant blood transfusion was associated with a better clinical outcome after heart transplantation (HTx). In this study the effect of heart transplantation (HTx) on the T cell receptor V beta chain (TCRVbeta) repertoire was investigated. Therefore, we analyzed the TCRVbeta repertoire of patients after HTx to see whether a correlation with clinical outcome could be observed.

Methods: Patients were analyzed at four different time points: pre-HTx, less than 1 month post-Htx, between 1 month and 2.5 month post-Htx and more than 2.5 months post-HTx. CD4+ and CD8+ T cells were purified from patient peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). TCR beta chain usage was analyzed semiquantitatively by Southern blot analysis.

Results: HTx affected the TCRVbeta repertoire in both the CD4+ and CD8+ T cell compartments in all patients. Changes in the TCRVbeta repertoire were most pronounced within the CD8+ T cell subset. Interestingly, one patient showed modulation in TCRVbeta chain usage predominantly in the CD4+ T cell compartment.

Conclusions: Modulation of TCRVbeta chain usage was detected in all patients analyzed. No clear-cut relation was observed between TCRVbeta modulation after transplantation and clinical outcome. In some cases modulations appeared to concur with observed immunological events (clinically and/or in-vitro).