Immune reconstitution after allogeneic marrow transplantation compared with blood stem cell transplantation

Allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell grafts contain about 10 times more T and B cells than marrow grafts. Because these cells may survive in transplant recipients for a long time, recipients of blood stem cells may be less immunocompromised than recipients of marrow. Immune reconstitution was studied in 115 patients randomly assigned to receive either allogeneic marrow or filgrastim-mobilized blood stem cell transplantation. Between day 30 and 365 after transplantation, counts of most lymphocyte subsets were higher in the blood stem cell recipients. The difference was most striking for CD4 T cells (about 4-fold higher counts for CD45RAhigh CD4 T cells and about 2-fold higher counts for CD45RAlow/−CD4 T cells;P < .05). On assessment using phytohemagglutinin and herpesvirus antigen-stimulated proliferation, T cells in the 2 groups of patients appeared equally functional. Median serum IgG levels were similar in the 2 groups. The rate of definite infections after engraftment was 1.7-fold higher in marrow recipients (P = .001). The rate of severe (inpatient treatment required) definite infections after engraftment was 2.4-fold higher in marrow recipients (P = .002). The difference in the rates of definite infections was greatest for fungal infections, intermediate for bacterial infections, and lowest for viral infections. Death associated with a fungal or bacterial infection occurred between day 30 and day 365 after transplantation in 9 marrow recipients and no blood stem cell recipients (P = .008). In conclusion, blood stem cell recipients have higher lymphocyte-subset counts and this appears to result in fewer infections.