Previous Article | Next Article 
Clinical and Vaccine Immunology, October 2009, p. 1429-1438, Vol. 16, No. 10
1071-412X/09/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/CVI.00214-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Age-Dependent Association between Low Frequency of CD27/CD28 Expression on pp65 CD8+ T Cells and Cytomegalovirus Replication after Transplantation
Sara Cantisán,1*
Julián Torre-Cisneros,2
Rosario Lara,1
Alberto Rodríguez-Benot,3
Francisco Santos,4
Juan Gutiérrez-Aroca,5
Inmaculada Gayoso,1
Marcelino González-Padilla,2
Manuel Casal,5
Antonio Rivero,2 and
Rafael Solana6
Instituto Maimónides para la Investigación Biomédica de Córdoba, Spanish Network for Research in Infectious Diseases, Avda. Menéndez Pidal, s/n, Córdoba 14004, Spain,1 Infectious Diseases Unit,2 Nephrology Department, Renal Transplant Unit,3 Pneumology Department, Lung Transplant Unit,4 Microbiology Department,5 Immunology Department, Reina Sofia University Hospital, Avda. Menéndez Pidal, s/n, Córdoba 14004, Spain6
Received 26 May 2009/ Returned for modification 17 June 2009/ Accepted 30 July 2009
In this cross-sectional study of 42 solid organ transplant recipients, the association of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) replication and age with the phenotype of the HCMV-specific CD8+ T cells was analyzed by using the CMV pp65 HLA-A*0201 pentamer. A correlation between the proportion of CD28– HCMV-specific CD8+ T cells and age was observed in patients without HCMV replication (r = 0.50; P = 0.02) but not in patients with HCMV replication (r = –0.05; P = 0.83), a finding which differs from that observed for total CD8+ T cells. Within the group of patients younger than 50 years of age, patients with HCVM replication after transplantation had higher percentages of CD28– HCMV-specific CD8+ T cells (85.6 compared with 58.7% for patients without HCMV replication; P = 0.004) and CD27– HCMV-specific CD8+ T cells (90.7 compared with 68.8% for patients without HCMV replication; P = 0.03). However, in patients older than age 50 years, a high frequency of these two subpopulations was observed in patients both with and without previous HCMV replication (for CD28– HCMV-specific CD8+ T cells, 84.4 and 80.9%, respectively [P = 0.39]; for CD27– HCMV-specific CD8+ T cells 86.6 and 81.5%, respectively [P = 0.16]). In conclusion, the present study shows that in the group of recipients younger than age 50 years, HCMV replication after transplantation is associated with a high percentage of CD27– and CD28– HCMV-specific CD8+ T cells. These results suggest that the increased percentage of CD27– or CD28– HCMV-specific subsets can be considered a biomarker of HCMV replication in solid organ transplant recipients younger than age 50 years but not in older patients. Further studies are necessary to define the significance of these changes in HCMV-associated clinical complications posttransplantation.
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Instituto Maimónides para la Investigación Biomédica de Córdoba (IMIBIC), Avda. Menéndez Pidal, s/n, Córdoba 14004, Spain. Phone and fax: 34 957 011636. E-mail: sacanti{at}hotmail.com
Published ahead of print on 5 August 2009.
Clinical and Vaccine Immunology, October 2009, p. 1429-1438, Vol. 16, No. 10
1071-412X/09/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/CVI.00214-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright © 2010 by the American Society for Microbiology. For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»