A new study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation by investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, University of Oslo (Norway) and University of Newcastle (UK) found that skin and intestinal t cells in a hematopoietic stem cell transplantation patient survive conditioning regimens and continue to perform their normal functions. Under certain conditions, the study found those t cells can become activated by donor white blood cells.

During conditioning, normal white blood t cells are depleted. Researchers found the t cells in the skin and gut were not. From News-Medical.net:

Based on the high throughput sequencing and STR analysis, the team saw that there were still abundant host T cells present in the skin and small intestine during GVHD, even when blood cells were 100% of donor origin. The mouse models demonstrated that skin-resident host T cells could be activated by donor non-T cell white blood cells to generate GVHD-like skin inflammation. The results indicate that unexpectedly, skin- and intestinal-resident T cells not only survive conditioning regimens, but are present in tissues during acute GVHD and very likely play an important role in the pathphysiology of this disease.

Read more at News-Medical.net

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