γδ T Cells' Role in Donor-Specific Antibody Generation: Insights From Transplant Recipients and Experimental Models.
Journal
Transplant international : official journal of the European Society for Organ Transplantation
Journal Volume
38
ISSN
1432-2277
Date Issued
2025
Author(s)
Charmetant, Xavier
Rigault, Guillaume
Kaminski, Hannah
Visentin, Jonathan
Taton, Benjamin
et al.
Abstract
The generation of donor-specific antibodies (DSA) requires that alloreactive B cells receive help from follicular helper T (T) cells. Recent works have suggested that γδ T cells could contribute to T cell-dependent humoral responses, leading us to investigate their role in DSA generation. Analysis of a cohort of 331 kidney transplant recipients found no relation between the number of circulating γδ T cells and the risk to develop DSA. Coculture models demonstrated that activated γδ T cells were unable to promote the differentiation of B cells into plasma cells, ruling out that they can be "surrogate" T. In line with this, γδ T cells preferentially localized outside the B cell follicles, in the T cell area of lymph nodes, suggesting that they could instead act as "antigen-presenting cell" (APC) to prime αβ T. This hypothesis was proven wrong since γδ T cells failed to acquire APC functions . These findings were validated by the demonstration that following transplantation with an allogeneic Balb/c (H2) heart, wild-type and TCRδKO C57BL/6 (H2) mice developed similar DSA responses, whereas TCRαKO recipients did not develop DSA. We concluded that the generation of DSA is unfazed by the absence of γδ T cells.
Subjects
B cell
donor specific antibody (DSA)
gamma delta T cell
humoral response
translational science
SDGs
Publisher
FRONTIERS MEDIA SA
Type
journal article