Open AccessPhenotype and molecular signature of CD8+ T cell subsets in T cell- mediated rejections after kidney transplantation
Author(s) -
Eun Jeong Ko,
Jung Woo Seo,
Kyoung Woon Kim,
Bo Mi Kim,
Jang Hee Cho,
Chan Duck Kim,
Junhee Seok,
Chul Woo Yang,
Sang Ho Lee,
Byung Ha Chung
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0234323
Subject(s) - cd8 , t cell , cytotoxic t cell , c c chemokine receptor type 7 , biology , immunology , microbiology and biotechnology , medicine , immune system , in vitro , genetics , chemokine , chemokine receptor
We investigated the phenotype and molecular signatures of CD8 + T cell subsets in kidney-transplant recipients (KTRs) with biopsy-proven T cell-mediated rejection (TCMR). We included 121 KTRs and divided them into three groups according to the pathologic or clinical diagnosis: Normal biopsy control (NC)( n = 32), TCMR ( n = 50), and long-term graft survival (LTGS)( n = 39). We used flowcytometry and microarray to analyze the phenotype and molecular signatures of CD8 + T cell subsets using peripheral blood from those patients and analyzed significant gene expressions according to CD8 + T cell subsets. We investigated whether the analysis of CD8 + T cell subsets is useful for predicting the development of TCMR. CCR7 + CD8 + T cells significantly decreased, but CD28 null CD57 + CD8 + T cells and CCR7 - CD45RA + CD8 + T cells showed an increase in the TCMR group compared to other groups ( p <0.05 for each); hence CCR7 + CD8 + T cells showed significant negative correlations to both effector CD8 + T cells. We identified genes significantly associated with the change of CCR7 + CD8 + T, CCR7 - CD45RA + CD8 + T, and CD28 null CD57 + CD8 + T cells in an ex vivo study and found that most of them were included in the significant genes on in vitro CCR7 + CD8 + T cells. Finally, the decrease of CCR7 + CD8 + T cells relative to CD28 null CD57 + T or CCR7 - CD45RA + CD8 + T cells can predict TCMR significantly in the whole clinical cohort. In conclusion, phenotype and molecular signature of CD8 + T subsets showed a significant relationship to the development of TCMR; hence monitoring of CD8 + T cell subsets may be a useful for predicting TCMR in KTRs.