NK Cells with a Lung-Resident Phenotype Represent the Most Prominent Donor Passenger Leukocyte Subset after Clinical Lung Transplantation
1Institute of Transplant Immunology, IFB-Tx, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany
2Department of Cardiothoracic, Transplantation and Vascular Surgery, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
Meeting: 2018 American Transplant Congress
Abstract number: A77
Keywords: Lung transplantation, Natural killer cells
Session Information
Session Name: Poster Session A: Innate Immunity; Chemokines, Cytokines, Complement
Session Type: Poster Session
Date: Saturday, June 2, 2018
Session Time: 5:30pm-7:30pm
Presentation Time: 5:30pm-7:30pm
Location: Hall 4EF
Objectives
Donor passenger leukocytes in peripheral blood of recipients after lung transplantation have been described long time ago. However, kinetics, distribution of T vs. NK cells, and their tissue origin have not been investigated in detail. Therefore, it was the aim of our study to identify donor NK and T cells, define their early kinetics as well as their phenotype and correlation to cold ischemic times.
Methods
Recipient blood before Tx, T0, T24 and perfusion solutions of 40 patients with cold preserved lungs were analysed for changes in composition of NK and T cell subsets. Theiy were correlated to the cold ischemic time (CIT). In 17 patients, the presence of donor leukocytes was determined by staining of donor HLA class I molecules.
Results
17 male, 23 female patients (mean age of 50.1±11.6 years) with diagnoses of idiopathic fibrosis (n=23), cystic fibrosis (n=8), idiopathic pulmonary hypertension (n=2) and emphysema (n=8) were included; mean CIT was 519±88.5 min. At T0, NK cells increased significantly (21.6%) compared to pre Tx values (11.2%, p=0.01) and declined significantly to 13.2% at T24 (p=0.04). T cells were significantly reduced at T0 to 58.1% and at T24 to 60.2% (both p<0.001) due to decreased CD4+ T cells. Linear regression with CIT did not show significant correlations for NK or T cells indicating that these changes were not associated with preservation time. Staining for donor HLA class I alleles showed that donor NK cells represented the most prominent subset at T0 (22.8.1±15.1%) of all NK cells (p<0.001). Donor T cells reached 9.9±11.1% for CD8+ and 6.6±8.6 for CD4+ T cells (all p<0.001). Donor NK and T cells declined at T24 (all p<0.001). Donor NK cells comprised by CD56dim (97.1±2.3%) cells. This NK cell phenotype matched NK cells in lung perfusates.
Conclusion:Donor lung-derived NK cells increase in recipient blood independently from CIT. This rise is mediated by donor NK cells that represent the major subset of passenger leukocytes, followed by CD8+ and CD4+ T cells with a peak directly after transplantation. The association of these donor NK cells with early graft function is currently investigated.
CITATION INFORMATION: Falk C., BellmasSanz R., Wiegmann B., Hitz A-.M., Bläsing K., Neudörfl C., Tudorache I., Kühn C., Avsar M., Haverich A., Warnecke G. NK Cells with a Lung-Resident Phenotype Represent the Most Prominent Donor Passenger Leukocyte Subset after Clinical Lung Transplantation Am J Transplant. 2017;17 (suppl 3).
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
Falk C, BellmasSanz R, Wiegmann B, Hitz A-M, Bläsing K, Neudörfl C, Tudorache I, Kühn C, Avsar M, Haverich A, Warnecke G. NK Cells with a Lung-Resident Phenotype Represent the Most Prominent Donor Passenger Leukocyte Subset after Clinical Lung Transplantation [abstract]. https://atcmeetingabstracts.com/abstract/nk-cells-with-a-lung-resident-phenotype-represent-the-most-prominent-donor-passenger-leukocyte-subset-after-clinical-lung-transplantation/. Accessed May 13, 2025.« Back to 2018 American Transplant Congress