Objective. We aimed to analyze alterations in peripheral blood T-cells subsets count and activation after heart transplantation, performed at Vilnius University Hospital Santariskiu Klinikos Cardiac Surgery Center, and to evaluate the suitability of immune monitoring for the prediction of acute graft rejection episodes.
Material and methods. The study included in total fifty heart recipients, grafted 1997-2015. Lymphocyte subsets CD3+CD4+, CD3+CD8+, CD3_CD19+, CD3“CD16+CD56+ and T-cells activation mark ers CD4+CD25+, CD3+HLA-DR+, CD8+HLA-DR+, CD8+CD57+ and CD8+CD38+ were detected by two-color flow cytometry. Rejection was graded by the International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation grading system.
Results. In case of > 2R (3A) rejection episodes significant increase in cytotoxic cell count as well as expression of HLA-DR antigen on T cells (p=0.008) and CD3+CD8+ cells (0.004), antigen CD57 (p=0.001) and surface glycoprotein CD38 (p=0.011) on CD8+ T lymphocytes have been revealed.
Conclusions. Immune parameters can be used as valuable additional option for determining patients at high risk for clinically significant rejection episodes.
