Cell-mediated immune responses to influenza vaccination in healthy volunteers and allogeneic stem cell transplant recipients

Abstract

Summary:Influenza is one of the most common respiratory diseases in humans. The response to vaccination is frequently poor in immunosuppressed individuals. The aim of the present study was to develop an enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT) assay for measuring of the specific T-cell response to influenza vaccination. In all, 18 healthy subjects and six stem cell transplantation (SCT) patients tested before and 4 weeks after influenza vaccination were included in the present study. Peripheral blood lymphocytes were stimulated with four influenza peptides; three based on sequences from the hemagglutinin and one from the M1 protein. The ELISPOT assay and the measurement of intracellular IFN-c production were used to determine the cell-mediated responses after stimulation with the peptides. Influenza vaccination elicited strong cell-mediated immune responses in the healthy controls to all four peptides with 3.2-6.9-fold increases in the number of IFN-c producing spots/10 6 cells. By intracellular staining, it was suggested that CD4 þ cells mediated the responses to the hemagglutinin peptides. In contrast, there was no increase in the number of IFN-c producing cells response after vaccination in the six SCT patients. In conclusion, our results suggest that the ELISPOT assay might be used as a complement to serology for monitoring of future influenza vaccine studies in SCT patients. Bone Marrow Transplantation (2005) 36, 411-415.

The Immune Response in Inbred and Outbred Strains of Mice before and after Bone Marrow Transplantation

“…No data concerning the kinetics of the immune response to antigenic challenge were presented. A previous study by this group 8 had reported similar results in a smaller cohort of transplant patients. Similar results have also been reported by Engelhard et al 6 and Pauksen et al 7 Thus, it appears that the immune response of stem cell transplant patients generally does not return to an entirely normal state, even at times long after hematopoietic engraftment and supposed immune homeostasis has been achieved.…”

“…Cells were then resuspended in 200 µL of PBS-5% FBS. All F c receptors were blocked using 10 µL (0.01mg/mL)ofmouseIgGfor5minutestoreduce spuriousantibodybinding.Cellsuspensionswerethen stained using the following antibody-flurochrome conjugates (all at 0.01 mg/mL): CD3-Horizon v450 and CD19 PerCP-Cy 5.5 (BD Biosciences), CD4-FITC,CD8-PE-Cy7andGr-1-PE.Cellswereanalyzed byFACSforsamplescollectedat-3, 3,6,8,11,14,18, 21, 27 and 33 days after immunization. All cell counts were obtained with the use of a Hemavet Analyzer (Drew Scientific, Dallas, TX).…”

“…1,2 Previous studies have demonstrated that immune dysfunctions occur in the transplant recipients posttransplantation, [3][4][5] but rarely have investigators analyzed how the immune system responds to re-immunization after stable hematological engraftment. [6][7][8][9] In that the immune system in BMT recipients is generally destroyed and replaced by the transplanted stem cells, with all immune memory being lost, it would not be unexpected that patients exhibit immune dysfunction. As patients are required to repeat their immunizations (eg, measles, mumps, rubella) in order to regain immune protection against common infectious organisms, such changes could be detrimental.…”

Evaluation of intervention strategy based on CMV-specific immune responses after allogeneic SCT

“…Intracellular IFN-g production was detected by the means of flow cytometry and enzyme-linked immunospot (Elispot) assays. 17,18 Detection of intracellular IFN-g production by flow cytometry One million PBMCs in 100 ml of RPMI per staining condition were placed in 96-well U-bottom tissue culture plates. The cells were stimulated with CMV antigen AD-169 (BioSite, Stockholm, Sweden) at 1 mg/ml and with PepMix pp65 (JPT Peptide Technologies GmbH, Berlin, Germany) at 25 mg/ml and incubated for 18 h at 371C in 5% CO 2 .…”

Influence of Vaccination and Surgery on HLA-DR Expression in Patients with Upper Aerodigestive Tract Cancer

“…16 In immunocompromised patients with cancer, there is convincing evidence that vaccination can be used safely. 17,18 Little is known, however, about the effect of vaccination on cell-mediated immune reactivity in cancer patients undergoing surgery. In order to address this issue we have, to the best of our knowledge, undertaken the first study to investigate the effect of vaccination on monocyte HLA-DR expression and lymphokine release in patients with an upper aerodigestive tract tumour undergoing surgery or conservative treatment.…”