Skip to main content
The Journal of Experimental Medicine logoLink to The Journal of Experimental Medicine
. 1991 Jul 1;174(1):27–33. doi: 10.1084/jem.174.1.27

Growth inhibition of clonogenic leukemic precursor cells by minor histocompatibility antigen-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes

PMCID: PMC2118892  PMID: 2056279

Abstract

Minor histocompatibility (mH) antigens appear to play a major role in bone marrow transplantation (BMT) using HLA-identical donors. Previously, we reported the isolation of major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-restricted mH antigen-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) from patients with graft-vs.-host disease or rejection after HLA- identical BMT. We have demonstrated that mH antigens can be recognized on hematopoietic progenitor cells, and residual recipient CTL specific for mH antigens expressed on donor hematopoietic progenitor cells may be responsible for graft rejection in spite of intensive conditioning regimens in HLA-identical BMT. Here, we investigated whether mH antigen- specific CTL directed against the mH antigens HA-1 to HA-5 and the male- specific antigen H-Y were capable of antigen-specific inhibition of in vitro growth of clonogenic leukemic precursor cells. We demonstrate that mH antigen-specific CTL against all mH antigens tested can lyse freshly obtained myeloid leukemic cells, that these mH antigen-specific CTL can inhibit their clonogenic leukemic growth in vitro, and that this recognition is MHC restricted. We illustrate that leukemic (precursor) cells can escape elimination by mH antigen-specific CTL by impaired expression of the relevant MHC restriction molecule. We suggest that mH antigen-specific MHC-restricted CTL may be involved in vivo in the graft-vs.-leukemia reactivity after BMT.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (566.8 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Falkenburg J. H., Fibbe W. E., van der Vaart-Duinkerken N., Nichols M. E., Rubinstein P., Jansen J. Human erythroid progenitor cells express Rhesus antigens. Blood. 1985 Sep;66(3):660–663. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Gale R. P., Champlin R. E. How does bone-marrow transplantation cure leukaemia? Lancet. 1984 Jul 7;2(8393):28–30. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(84)92009-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Goulmy E., Gratama J. W., Blokland E., Zwaan F. E., van Rood J. J. A minor transplantation antigen detected by MHC-restricted cytotoxic T lymphocytes during graft-versus-host disease. Nature. 1983 Mar 10;302(5904):159–161. doi: 10.1038/302159a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Goulmy E., Termijtelen A., Bradley B. A., van Rood J. J. Y-antigen killing by T cells of women is restricted by HLA. Nature. 1977 Apr 7;266(5602):544–545. doi: 10.1038/266544a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Marijt W. A., Veenhof W. F., Brand A., Goulmy E., Fibbe W. E., Willemze R., van Rood J. J., Falkenburg J. H. Minor histocompatibility antigen-specific cytotoxic T cell lines, capable of lysing human hematopoietic progenitor cells, can be generated in vitro by stimulation with HLA-identical bone marrow cells. J Exp Med. 1991 Jan 1;173(1):101–109. doi: 10.1084/jem.173.1.101. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Martin P. J., Hansen J. A., Storb R., Thomas E. D. Human marrow transplantation: an immunological perspective. Adv Immunol. 1987;40:379–438. doi: 10.1016/s0065-2776(08)60243-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Perreault C., Décary F., Brochu S., Gyger M., Bélanger R., Roy D. Minor histocompatibility antigens. Blood. 1990 Oct 1;76(7):1269–1280. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Voogt P. J., Fibbe W. E., Marijt W. A., Goulmy E., Veenhof W. F., Hamilton M., Brand A., Zwann F. E., Willemze R., van Rood J. J. Rejection of bone-marrow graft by recipient-derived cytotoxic T lymphocytes against minor histocompatibility antigens. Lancet. 1990 Jan 20;335(8682):131–134. doi: 10.1016/0140-6736(90)90003-n. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Voogt P. J., Goulmy E., Fibbe W. E., Veenhof W. F., Brand A., Falkenburg J. H. Minor histocompatibility antigen H-Y is expressed on human hematopoietic progenitor cells. J Clin Invest. 1988 Sep;82(3):906–912. doi: 10.1172/JCI113697. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Voogt P. J., Goulmy E., Veenhof W. F., Hamilton M., Fibbe W. E., Van Rood J. J., Falkenburg J. H. Cellularly defined minor histocompatibility antigens are differentially expressed on human hematopoietic progenitor cells. J Exp Med. 1988 Dec 1;168(6):2337–2347. doi: 10.1084/jem.168.6.2337. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Weiden P. L., Sullivan K. M., Flournoy N., Storb R., Thomas E. D. Antileukemic effect of chronic graft-versus-host disease: contribution to improved survival after allogeneic marrow transplantation. N Engl J Med. 1981 Jun 18;304(25):1529–1533. doi: 10.1056/NEJM198106183042507. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. van Els C. A., de Bueger M. M., Kempenaar J., Ponec M., Goulmy E. Susceptibility of human male keratinocytes to MHC-restricted H-Y-specific lysis. J Exp Med. 1989 Oct 1;170(4):1469–1474. doi: 10.1084/jem.170.4.1469. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from The Journal of Experimental Medicine are provided here courtesy of The Rockefeller University Press

RESOURCES