Skewed T-cell differentiation in patients with indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma reversed by ex vivo T-cell culture with γc cytokines

The unfavorable clinical evolution in indolent non-Hodgkin lymphomas suggests defective control of neoplastic growth by the immune system. To address this issue, we evaluated phenotype, function, and maturation profile of CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells from peripheral-blood, lymph nodes, or bone marrow of patients with B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) at diagnosis. T cells from these patients frequently showed an activated but apoptosis-prone phenotype with low frequency of tumor-reactive T cells showing a TH2/Tc2 functional profile in the response to autologous tumor. In peripheral blood or in lymph nodes and bone marrow, and, in comparison to healthy donors, patients' T cells showed a skewed differentiation toward Tnaive and Tcentral memory stages, with low expression of granzyme B and perforin. T-cell culture with autologous tumor in the presence of IL-2, IL-15, and autologous bone marrow-derived cells led to massive T-cell expansion and to differentiation of cytotoxic factor(+) CD8+ T cells releasing IFN-gamma and killing autologous B-cell tumor in an HLA-class I-restricted fashion. These results suggest impaired T-cell differentiation to effector stage in patients with B-cell NHL, but indicate that T-cell responsiveness to gamma c cytokines is retained, thus allowing to promote generation of antitumor T cells for immune intervention.