Publication Date:
2021-02-04
Description:
Lymphocyte numbers need to be quite tightly regulated. It is generally assumed that lymphocyte production and lifespan increase homeostatically when lymphocyte numbers are low, and vice versa return to normal once cell numbers have normalized. This widely-accepted concept is largely based on experiments in mice, but is hardly investigated in vivo in humans. Here we quantified lymphocyte production and loss rates in vivo in patients 0.5-1 year after their autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (autoHSCT). We indeed found that the production rates of most T-cell and B-cell subsets in autoHSCT-patients were 2 to 8-times higher than in healthy controls, but went hand in hand with a 3 to 9-fold increase in cell loss rates. Both rates also did not normalize when cell numbers did. This shows that increased lymphocyte production and loss rates occur even long after autoHSCT and can persist in the face of apparently normal cell numbers.
Electronic ISSN:
2050-084X
Topics:
Biology
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General