Reconstitution of maturating and regulatory lymphocyte subsets after cord blood and BMT in children.

Some clinical characteristics of cord blood transplantation (CBT) might be explained by specificities in the reconstitution of immune subsets differing by their maturation stage or their implication in GVHD, tolerance or immune responses against tumor or infectious agents. Here, we compare the immune reconstitution of several of these subsets after CBT and BMT. B-cell count recovery was faster after CBT. There was no difference in the recovery of CD4(+) and CD8(+) cell counts. There was no difference either in the frequency of several subsets: CD45RO(+) memory, and CD45RA(+) naïve cells within the CD4(+) T-cell compartment, CD27(+) among B cells, CD56(bright), NKG2A(+), and KIR(+) cells among natural killer (NK) cells, CD25(+)FOXP3(+) regulatory T cells and invariant NKT cells. The proportion of the thymic naïve CD31(+)CD45RA(+)CD4(+) T cells was lower after CBT at 6 months post-transplant, and was still below normal at 1 year in both groups. NK-cell expansion was more sustained after CBT, with fewer double-negative NKG2A(-)KIR(-) hyporesponsive cells and more double-positive NKG2A(+)KIR(+) hyper-responsive NK cells. These results, therefore, indicate that further research to improve CBT outcome should try to improve thymopoieisis and take advantage of the sustained NK-cell reconstitution.