Decreased immune functions of blood cells following mobilization with granulocyte colony-stimulating factor: association with donor characteristics

In this study, mononuclear cells (MNCs) from granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF)-mobilized blood stem cell (BSC) harvests from 104 healthy d onors were analyzed for their immunological functions and compared with MNC s from 28 steady-state nonmobilized donors. The relationships between donor characteristics (age, gender, weight, and HLA type) and immune functions o f the harvests were also analyzed. There was a significant (P < .01) decrea se in natural killer and lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cell-mediated cy totoxicity for G-CSF-mobilized effector cells compared with nonmobilized ce lls. Similarly, there was a significant (P < .005) decrease in both T-cell and B-cell mitogen response in G-CSF-mobilized cells compared with nonmobil ized cells. There was dose-dependent inhibition of LAK cell-mediated cytoto xicity, but this effect was not seen with other immune function assays. Cha nges in immune function did not appear to be determined by frequency of cel lular phenotypes or expression of effector function genes seen in a reverse -transcription polymerase chain reaction. There was a significant relations hip between expression of certain HLA alleles (A1, A3, A24, B44, B62, DR15, DR17; all P < .01) and increased immune function, such as cytotoxicity and /or mitogen response. A decrease in immune function with the HLA-DR13 expre ssion was also observed (P < .01). Since the G-CSF increases the number of MNCs, the increase in effector cells might compensate for decreased immune functions of these cells in vivo when transplanted into patients. These res ults suggest a decreased immune function in G-CSF-mobilized BSC harvests an d warrant further studies to correlate these data with clinical outcome.