Polyfunctional CD8+ T Cells are Associated with Biopsy Proven Acute Cellular Rejection in Pediatric Heart Transplant Patients

Polyfunctional T cells (PTC) have the ability to secrete ≥2 cytokines per cell when stimulated and increased presence of PTC is associated with favorable outcomes in patients undergoing chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy for cancer. In pediatric heart transplant recipients (PHT), the development of PTC may represent increased exposure to don or specific antigens with the potential to induce greater allograft damage through elevated cytokine production; however, the ability of circulating PTC to predict acute cellular rejection (ACR) in PHT is unknown.

Source: The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation - March 31, 2020 Category: Transplant Surgery Authors: S.J. Nakano, J. Zhou, K. Nunley, J. Beatty, S. Mackay, S.R. Auerbach Tags: (535) Source Type: research