Comparison of Wilms’ tumor antigen 1-specific T lymphocyte generation soon after nonmyeloablative allergenic stem-cell transplantation in acute and chronic leukemia patients

Clinical studies have shown that NST has better therapeutic results with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) than acute leukemia (AL), but whether the generation of graft-versus-leukemia (GVL) effects is different between AL and CML patients early after NST has not yet been studied, so we used a pentamer-staining technique in combination with ICCS to detect WT1⁺CD8⁺CTL/WT1⁺Tc1 and WT1⁺Th1 cells in these two groups of patients. Results showed that the emergence time of WT1⁺CD₈ ⁺CTL/WT1⁺Tc1 cells after NST in AL patients was similar to that in CML patients (P = 0.58), while the emergence time of WT1⁺Th1 cells after NST in AL patients was shorter than in CML patients (P = 0.047). Furthermore, the peak proportions of WT1⁺CD₈ ⁺CTL/WT1⁺Tc1 (P > 0.05) and WT1⁺Th1 (P > 0.05) cells were similar between AL and CML patients, and the increased rates (P > 0.05) and elevated levels (P > 0.05) of WT1-specific T cells were not statistically different between the groups after G-CSF mobilized donor mononuclear cell infusion. In addition, the reconstruction of lymphocyte subsets (P > 0.05) and CD4/8 ratios (P > 0.05) in AL patients were not statistically different from those in CML patients within 180 days after NST. These results suggested that WT1 maybe induces similar GVL effects in both AL and CML patients early after NST.