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. 2023 Jul;51(7):3000605231187932.
doi: 10.1177/03000605231187932.

High levels of NK Cells in graft are associated with reduced febrile neutropenia after haploidentical peripheral blood stem cell transplantation

Caili Guo  1 , Xinyan Li  1 , Miaojing Li  1 , Pengcheng He  1 , Wenjuan Wang  1 , Xiaoning Wang  1   2
Affiliations

High levels of NK Cells in graft are associated with reduced febrile neutropenia after haploidentical peripheral blood stem cell transplantation

Caili Guo et al. J Int Med Res. 2023 Jul.

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the impact of natural killer (NK) cells in the graft on the outcome following haploidentical peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (haplo-PBSCT).

Methods: We retrospectively collected data from patients who had undergone haplo-PBSCT at our centre from January 2019 to November 2021. The percentage of NK cells in stem cell grafts was detected by flow cytometry. Based on the median (range) count of NK cells (1.8 [0.4-6.0] × 108/kg), patients were separated into high and low NK cell count groups.

Results: Data from 96 patients were analysed. Patients were evenly distributed (48 in each group) into high and low NK cell count groups. There was no significant difference in neutrophil and platelet recovery between the two groups. However, the rates of febrile neutropenia, bacterial infection, and invasive fungal disease (IFD) were significantly reduced in the high compared with the low NK cell count group. There was no significant difference in rates of cytomegalovirus (CMV) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infections between groups. There was no significant difference between groups in grades II and above acute graft versus host disease (GVHD), progression-free survival (PFS), or overall survival (OS).

Conclusion: A high number of NK cells in the graft may reduce febrile neutropenia, IFD and bacterial infection following haplo-PBSCT but it has no significant effect on aGVHD, PFS, or OS.

Keywords: Haploidentical peripheral blood stem cell transplantation; NK cells; febrile neutropenia; haplo-PBSCT.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) for high and low natural killer (NK) cell count groups. PFS was calculated from transplant day to the date the disease relapsed and OS was calculated from disease onset to the day of death or last follow-up visit. There were no statistically significant differences between the two groups in PFS or OS.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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