Cognate CD4 T-Cell Licensing of Dendritic Cells Heralds Anti-Cytomegalovirus CD8 T-Cell Immunity after Human Allogeneic Umbilical Cord Blood Transplantation

Abstract

Survival rates after stem cell transplantation are lowered by 25% when patients undergo reactivation of cytomegalovirus (CMV) that they harbor. Immune protection against CMV is mostly executed by white blood cells called killer T cells. We here show that for generation of optimally protective killer T-cell responses that respond to CMV, the early elicitation of help from a second branch of CMV-directed T cells, called helper T cells, is required.