The Rapid Ex Vivo Generation of an Immunodominant Antigen-Specific Memory CD8 Population and Its Subsequent Homeostatic Expansion in Ablatively-Conditioned HCT Recipients.

There is currently significant interest in the transplant field to develop adoptive-transfer strategies utilizing T cell populations to provide immediate immune function as well as long-term immune reconstitution following hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). Presumably, these pre-selected T cell populations could then be further expanded in the transplant recipient as a consequence of lymphopenia-induced proliferation. However, clinical application of adoptive transfer strategies has been limited by practical (time, expense) and technical (isolation and expansion of antigen-specific T cell populations) difficulties, hence more efficient approaches need to be identified. Recent reports have demonstrated the feasibility for the rapid ex vivo generation of transgenic memory CD8 populations. We investigated the potential of applying this ex vivo approach to generate and expand an immunodominant antigen-specific memory population from primary CD8 T cells. CD8 cells recognizing the mouse H60 epitope were selected as the antigen-specific CD8 population. The H60 glycoprotein is the ligand for NKG2D and the LTFNYRNL peptide is an immunodominant minor transplantation antigen. H60 is expressed by BALB.B (H2^b) hematopoietic cells and recognized by C57BL/6 (B6) CD8 cells within the context of the H2K^b molecule. CD8 T cells from normal B6 spleens were positively selected using Miltenyi beads. The purified CD8 cells (97%) were then cultured with bone marrow-derived B6 DC, rmIL-2, and H60 peptide (1μM) for 3 days. Cells were harvested and re-cultured with rmIL-15 for 2–4 days. The resultant CD8 population was enriched 10 fold for tetramer-stained H60⁺ CD8 T cells (average: 3.0% of CD8 T cells). The H60⁺ CD8 cells displayed a memory phenotype as characterized by CD44⁺, Ly6C⁺, CD62L^intermed, and CD25^lo expression. We hypothesized these H60⁺ CD8 T cells could be further expanded in transplant recipients by lymphopenia-induced proliferation. To determine the expansion and persistence of H60⁺ TM post-HCT, H60⁺-enriched CD8 cells were co-transplanted with T cell-depleted B6 bone marrow into 9.0Gy-conditioned syngeneic recipients. The phenotype and number of H60⁺ cells in recipient spleens and bone marrow were assessed beginning 3 days post-HCT. Notably, the H60⁺ CD8 cells maintained their memory phenotype and persisted at least 2 months post-transplant. The ex vivo-generated H60⁺ TM underwent a relative expansion of 1.5–2 fold as assessed in recipient spleens, similar to the post-transplant expansion of H60⁺ CD8 TM derived in vivo from B6 mice primed to BALB.B cells. Moreover, this post-HCT expansion was also similar to that by an ex vivo-generated, transgenic CD8 TM population. Both (ex vivo and in vivo generated) H60⁺ TM populations also exhibited expansion (1.5–2 fold) in the bone marrow. In total, an immunodominant antigen-specific CD8 TM population was selectively generated and enriched ex vivo and found to undergo expansion following transplant into ablatively conditioned HCT recipients. The similarities in expansion and persistence between ex vivo generated H60 and in vivo primed H60 populations suggest this approach may have useful applications towards the development of successful adoptive transfer strategies.