[The difference of intracellular cytokines produced by different lymphocyte subsets of cord blood and adult peripheral blood].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the difference of intracellular cytokines between cord blood and adult peripheral blood and elucidate its significance for GVHD. METHOD: Different lymphocyte subsets were categorized in cord and adult peripheral blood by monoclonal antibodies with 3 color fluorescence using flow cytometry. The IL-2, TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma produced by various lymphocyte subsets were compared between the two groups. RESULT: (1) In cord blood, dominant T cells were CD(4)(+)CD(45RA)(+), while the major T cells were both CD(4)(+)CD(45RO)(+) and CD(8)(+)CD(45RO)(+) in adult peripheral blood. (2) The quantities of IL-2, TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma produced by cord blood lymphocytes were lower than that of adult peripheral blood lymphocytes. Moreover, the majority of cells that produced cytokines in the cord blood were CD(4)(+)CD(45RA)(+), but in adult peripheral blood were mainly CD(4)(+)CD(45RO)(+) and CD(8)(+)CD(45RO)(+). CONCLUSION: As compared with adult peripheral blood, the cord blood not only possessed different proportion of lymphocyte subsets, but also significant low level of cytokines. The differences of various lymphocyte subset proportions and lower level of cytokines in cord blood probably related to the lower incidence of GVHD in cord blood stem cell transplantation.