DIFFERENT T-CELL RECEPTOR REPERTOIRES BETWEEN LESIONS AND PERIPHERAL-BLOOD IN ACUTE GRAFT-VERSUS-HOST DISEASE AFTER ALLOGENEIC BONE-MARROW TRANSPLANTATION

From the viewpoint of T-cell receptor (TCR) repertoire, we studied the role of T cells in acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) after allog eneic bone marrow transplantation (allo-BMT) from an HLA-identical sib ling, By means of inverse polymerase chain reaction method and DNA seq uencing, we analyzed TCR-alpha and -beta transcripts from GVHD lesions and peripheral blood (PB) in a patient with typical GVHD together wit h PB from donor. At the initial onset of GVHD, V alpha-7 and -19 subfa milies were oligoclonally expanded in the PB compared with those in th e oral mucosal lesions. At the second onset, V alpha-2, and V beta-6 s ubfamilies were more frequently detected in the cutaneous lesion than in the PB, Some TCR transcripts were recurrently found either in the m ucosal or cutaneous lesions (or in both) and not in the PB. Furthermor e, some of recurrent TCR transcripts in the lesions shared V gene segm ents and common motifs of complementarity determining region-3, These findings suggested that T cells infiltrating the GVHD lesions recogniz ed a limited kind of antigens presented by patient's tissues with GVHD , and that T-cell repertoire in the GVHD lesions was different from th at in the PB. (C) 1996 by The American Society of Hematology.