Functional characteristics and phenotypic plasticity of CD57⁺PD1^-CD4 T cells and their relationship with transplant immunosuppression

Costimulation blockade (CoB)-based immunosuppression offers the promise of improved transplantation outcomes with reduced drug toxicity. However, it is hampered by early acute rejections, mediated at least in part by differentiated, CoB-resistant T cells, such as CD57⁺PD1^-CD4 T cells. In this study, we characterize these cells pretransplant, determine their fate posttransplant, and examine their proliferative capacity in vitro in humans. Our studies show that CD57⁺PD1^-CD4 T cells are correlated with increasing age and CMV infection pretransplant, and persist for up to 1 y posttransplant. These cells are replication incompetent alone but proliferated in the presence of unsorted PBMCs in a contact-independent manner. When stimulated, cells sorted by CD57/PD1 status upregulate markers of activation with proliferation. Up to 85% of CD57⁺PD1^-cells change expression of CD57/ PD1 with stimulation, typically, upregulating PD1 and downregulating CD57. PD1 upregulation is accentuated in the presence of rapamycin but prevented by tacrolimus. These data support a general theory of CoB-resistant cells as Ag-experienced, costimulation-independent cells and suggest a mechanism for the synergy of belatacept and rapamycin, with increased expression of the activation marker PD1 potentiating exhaustion of CoB-resistant cells.