Immune function in children under chemotherapy for standard risk acute lymphoblastic leukaemia - a prospective study of 20 paediatric patients
Immune function in children under chemotherapy for standard risk acute lymphoblastic leukaemia - a prospective study of 20 paediatric patients
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DOI:
10.1111/j.1365-2141.2009.07862.x
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发表时间:
2009-11-01
影响因子:
6.5
通讯作者:
Schlegel, Paul G.
中科院分区:
文献类型:
--
作者:
Eyrich, Matthias;Wiegering, Verena;Schlegel, Paul G.
P>Multidrug chemotherapy is a highly effective treatment for paediatric acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), but at the same time compromises immunity of patients. Immune function in a homogenous cohort of 20 children with standard- and intermediate-risk ALL was analysed by immunophenotyping, intracellular cytokine staining, assessment of serum cytokine concentrations, T-cell receptor (TCR) repertoire diversity and thymic function. B-cells were most severely affected by chemotherapy, rapidly declined under induction and did not recover until the cessation of maintenance therapy. This recovery was paralleled by a relative increase in naive IgM+IgD+CD27- B-cells, indicating de novo B-cell generation as the major pathway for B-cell reconstitution. T- and Natural Killer-cells were less severely affected. Although numerically diminished by chemotherapy, they had partially recovered at the end of induction. Interestingly, CD4:CD8 ratio, distribution of naive versus memory T-cells, cytokine production, TCR-repertoire complexity and thymic function were all only marginally affected by chemotherapy. Patients receiving dexamethasone had significantly less IFN gamma+ T-cells than those receiving prednisone. Our data show that during chemotherapy in standard- and intermediate-risk paediatric ALL patients the T-cell system remains relatively well preserved. Future studies will show if this effect can be exploited for inclusion of immunotherapy in standard ALL treatment protocols.