Detecting T-cell clonal expansions and quantifying clone survival using deep profiling of immune repertoires.

An individual's T-cell repertoire constantly changes under the influence of external and internal factors. Cells that do not receive a stimulatory signal die, while those that encounter and recognize a pathogen or receive a co-stimulatory signal divide, resulting in clonal expansions. T-cell clones can be traced by monitoring the presence of their unique T-cell receptor (TCR) sequence, which is assembled through a process known as V(D)J rearrangement.

Impact of Natural Killer Cell-Associated Factors on Acute Leukemia Outcomes after Haploidentical Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation with αβ T Cell Depletion in a Pediatric Cohort.

The technique of αβ T cell depletion (αβTCD) is a well-established method of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) for children with acute leukemia owing to the low rates of graft-versus-host disease and nonrelapse mortality (NRM). The graft-versus-leukemia effect is generally ascribed to natural killer (NK) cells conserved within the graft. It is not known whether NK-related factors affect the outcome of αβTCD HSCT, however.

T-cell tracking, safety, and effect of low-dose donor memory T-cell infusions after αβ T cell-depleted hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

The delayed recovery of adaptive immunity underlies transplant-related mortality (TRM) after αβ T cell-depleted hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). We tested the use of low-dose memory donor lymphocyte infusions (mDLIs) after engraftment of αβ T cell-depleted grafts.A cohort of 131 pediatric patients (median age 9 years) were grafted with αβ T cell-depleted products from either haplo (n = 79) or unrelated donors (n = 52).