Umbilical cord blood T cells respond against the Melan-A/MART-1 tumor antigen and exhibit reduced alloreactivity as compared with adult blood-derived T cells.

Umbilical cord blood (UCB) is increasingly used as a source of hematopoietic progenitor cells to treat a variety of disorders. UCB transplant is associated with comparatively reduced incidence of graft-versus-host disease, robust graft versus leukemia effect, and relatively high incidence of opportunistic infections, three processes in which donor-derived T lymphocytes are known to be predominantly involved. To examine the differential functionality of UCB T cells, CD8(+) T cells specific for the melanoma-associated HLA-A2-restricted Melan-A(26-35) A27L peptide were isolated from HLA-A2(+) and HLA-A2(-) UCB samples and HLA-A2(+) and HLA-A2(-) adult peripheral blood using A2/Melan-A tetramers. In UCB samples, A2/Melan-A(+) CD8(+) T cells were detected at a frequency of 0.04%, were more frequent in HLA-A2(+) UCB, and were polyclonal and mostly naive. Consistent with Ag-driven expansion, the frequency of A2/Melan-A(+) CD8(+) T cells was increased following stimulation with cognate peptide or polyclonal activation, they acquired cell-surface markers reflective of effector/memory differentiation, their TCR repertoire became oligoclonal, and they expressed cytolytic activity and produced IFN-gamma. Although functional properties of A2/Melan-A(+) CD8(+) T cells derived from HLA-A2(+) UCB resembled those of HLA-A2(+) adult peripheral blood, they were more likely to reach terminal differentiation following polyclonal stimulation and produced less IFN-gamma in response to cognate peptide. A2/Melan-A(+) CD8(+) T cells from HLA-A2(-) UCB were poorly cytolytic, produced little IFN-gamma, and were predominantly monofunctional or nonfunctional. These properties of UCB-derived CD8(+) T cells could contribute to the reduced incidence of graft-versus-host disease and heightened incidence of opportunistic infections observed following UCB transplant.