Human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) causes only minor symptoms in healthy individuals but in immunosuppressed patients, e.g. patients after allogeneic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), HHV-6 reactivations can lead to diseases in different organ systems. T-lymphocytes play an important role in the control of virus reactivations. The incidence of viral reactivations after HSCT is high, often due to a lack of virus-specific T-cell immune responses. The aim of this project is the description of the HHV-6 specific cellular immunity in children and adolescents after allogeneic HSCT. 3, 6, 9, 12, 18 and 24 months after allogeneic HSCT peripheral blood mononuclear cells were isolated from patient blood, stimulated with HHV-6-specific antigen (U54) and cultured for 10 days. On day 10, peripheral blood mononuclear cells were re-stimulated with the Virus Antigen U54 for 6 hours and, thereafter, stained for surface markers (CD3, CD4, CD8, CD56) and intracytoplasmatic activation markers (IL-2, IFN-γ, TNF-α) for flow cytometric detection of virus-specific T-cells. T-cells with intracytoplasmic expression of activation markers after stimulation with the virus antigen are HHV-6-specific T-cells. This indicated HHV-6 specific cellular immunity. The virus-specific immunity of patients to HHV-6 was compared to the virus-specific immunity of children and adolescents of a control group. In the control group significantly higher frequencies of HHV-6-specific TNF-α producing CD8+ T-cells were detected in individuals older than 10 years of age [
HHV-6-specific T-cell immune reconstitution among children and adolescents after allogeneic stem cell transplantation
Schwarz, C. M. (Autor/-in). 2019
Studienabschlussarbeit: Dissertation