The Journal of Immunology, Vol 147, Issue 3 846-850, Copyright © 1991 by American Association of Immunologists

ARTICLES

Phenotypic and functional analysis of T cell receptor gamma delta- bearing cells isolated from human heart allografts

LM Vaessen, AJ Ouwehand, CC Baan, NH Jutte, AH Balk, FH Claas and W Weimar
Department of Internal Medicine I, University Hospital Rotterdam- Dijkzigt, The Netherlands.

Endomyocardial biopsies from human heart transplant recipients were investigated with respect to the occurrence of in vivo activated, alloreactive TCR-gamma delta+ cells. More than one year after transplantation, 30% of the biopsy-derived T cell cultures contained TCR-gamma delta+ cells, whereas in the first year after heart transplant in only 8% of the culture TCR-gamma delta+ cells were found. Such an increase of TCR-gamma delta+ cells was not observed in the peripheral blood of the patient. In most biopsy-derived cultures, the gamma delta cells were delta-TCS1+. No donor-specific cytotoxic activity could be demonstrated for TCR-gamma delta+ cells tested, whereas non-MHC-restricted cytotoxicity was found in several cultures. The occurrence of nonalloreactive TCR-gamma delta+ cells late after transplantation, when acute cellular rejection episodes are rare, suggests a role in the down-regulation of the allo-Ir.