Immunobiology
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With the aim to search for differences in T cell reconstitution after allogenic or autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), we characterized peripheral blood T-cell subsets by means of flow cytometry, in adult patients who had undergone either allogenic (n=23) or autologous (n=29) HSCT for the treatment of hematological malignancies. The patients were followed every 3 months for 21 months after HSCT. ⋯ In total, the differences of the nature and the speed of T lymphocyte reconstitution observed between the two patient groups were minor. This leads us to conclude that in allografted patients, lymphocyte activation as well as many other disturbances of subpopulations of peripheral blood lymphocytes are probably not related to the allogenicity of the graft, but are due to the expansion of T cells transfused with HSC and slow differentiation of T lymphocytes in the thymus progressively colonized by bone marrow-derived T-cell precursors.