Tissue-specific features of the T cell repertoire after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation in human and mouse

Sci Transl Med. 2023 Jul 26;15(706):eabq0476. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abq0476. Epub 2023 Jul 26.

Abstract

T cells are the central drivers of many inflammatory diseases, but the repertoire of tissue-resident T cells at sites of pathology in human organs remains poorly understood. We examined the site-specificity of T cell receptor (TCR) repertoires across tissues (5 to 18 tissues per patient) in prospectively collected autopsies of patients with and without graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), a potentially lethal tissue-targeting complication of allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation, and in mouse models of GVHD. Anatomic similarity between tissues was a key determinant of TCR repertoire composition within patients, independent of disease or transplant status. The T cells recovered from peripheral blood and spleens in patients and mice captured a limited portion of the TCR repertoire detected in tissues. Whereas few T cell clones were shared across patients, motif-based clustering revealed shared repertoire signatures across patients in a tissue-specific fashion. T cells at disease sites had a tissue-resident phenotype and were of donor origin based on single-cell chimerism analysis. These data demonstrate the complex composition of T cell populations that persist in human tissues at the end stage of an inflammatory disorder after lymphocyte-directed therapy. These findings also underscore the importance of studying T cell in tissues rather than blood for tissue-based pathologies and suggest the tissue-specific nature of both the endogenous and posttransplant T cell landscape.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Graft vs Host Disease* / pathology
  • Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation*
  • Humans
  • Mice
  • Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell
  • T-Lymphocytes / pathology

Substances

  • Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell