Mucosal-associated invariant T cells predict increased acute graft-versus-host-disease incidence in patients receiving allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

• Published in: Cancer cell international 2022-09, Vol.22 (1), p.1-297, Article 297
• Main Authors: Wang, Zhao, Zhang, Sudong, Zhang, Xiaoyu, Liu, Li, Zhou, Lukun, Shen, Yuyan, Zhang, Rongli, He, Yi, Yang, Donglin, Jiang, Erlie, Feng, Xiaoming, Zhou, Jiaxi, Cheng, Tao, Han, Mingzhe, Feng, Sizhou
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antibodies; Apoptosis; Bacterial infections; CD38 antigen; CD4 antigen; CD8 antigen; Chemokine receptors; CXC chemokines; Cytokines; Cytomegalovirus; Flow cytometry; Fungal infections; Gene expression; Gene set enrichment analysis; Graft versus host disease; Hematopoietic cell transplantation; Hematopoietic stem cells; Leukemia; Lymphocytes; Lymphocytes T; MAIT cell; Mucosa; Multivariate analysis; Patients; Peripheral blood; Statistical analysis; Stem cell transplantation; Stem cells; T cell receptors; Transplants & implants; Tropical diseases; Tumor necrosis factor-α; Viral infections; α-Interferon; γ-Interferon
• ISSN: 1475-2867; 1475-2867
• DOI: 10.1186/s12935-022-02703-x

Background Mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells are innate-like T cells, some studies have reported that the number of circulating MAIT cells reduced in patients with acute graft-versus-host-disease (aGVHD) development. However, the role of donor MAIT cells on aGVHD development and subsequent functional change still remain unclear. Methods The study recruited 86 patients with hematological malignancies who underwent allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) from May 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019. MAIT cells, their subset, and cytokine levels were measured by flow cytometry. Gray’s test was used to assess the impact of graft MAIT cell proportion and number on aGVHD incidence. The Cox proportional hazard model was used in the multivariate analysis. The comparison for continuous variables was assessed using Mann–Whitney analysis. RNA-sequencing was performed to investigate the possible molecular pathway changes. Results Our study showed that the proportion of MAIT cells in grafts was not different from normal controls, but the CD4/8 subsets were altered. Taking the median of the proportion and number of MAIT cells in the graft as the threshold, the results showed that the incidence of grade B-D aGVHD in patients with MAIT cell proportion ≥ 3.03% was significantly higher than that in patients with MAIT cell proportion