Clinical Information

The CD8 T cells play an important role in the immune response to viral or intracellular infectious agents, as well as antitumor immunity and immune surveillance.

Upon activation, CD8 T cells mediate a variety of effector functions, including cytokine secretion and cytotoxicity. Interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) is one of the early cytokines produced by CD8 T cells; it is released within a few hours of activation.(1) The cytotoxic function is mediated by the contents of the cytolytic granules.(1) Cell-surface mobilization of the cytolytic granule components, CD107a and CD107b, also known as lysosome-associated membrane proteins LAMP-1 and LAMP-2, occurs when CD8 T cells mediate their cytolytic function and degranulate.(2)

CD8 T-cell activation occurs either through the T-cell receptor peptide-major histocompatibility complex or by use of a mitogen (eg, phorbol myristate acetate and the calcium ionophore ionomycin). Mitogen-mediated activation is antigen nonspecific. 

Impairment of global CD8 T-cell activation (due to inherent cellular immunodeficiency or as a consequence of overimmunosuppression by therapeutic agents) results in reduced production of IFN-gamma and other cytokines, reduced cytotoxic function, and increased risk for developing infectious complications. Agents associated with overimmunosuppression include the calcineurin inhibitors (eg, cyclosporine A, FK506 [Prograf/tacrolimus], and rapamycin [sirolimus]), antimetabolites (eg, mycophenolate mofetil), and thymoglobulin.

Immunosuppression is most commonly used for allograft maintenance in solid organ transplant recipients, to prevent graft-versus-host disease in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant patients and to treat patients with autoimmune diseases. In these settings, reducing the risk for developing infectious complications as a result of overimmunosuppression is a clinical challenge.

Therapeutic drug monitoring is routinely used in the transplant practice to avoid overtreatment and to determine patient compliance. But, the levels of drugs measured in blood do not directly correlate with the administered dose due to individual pharmacokinetic differences.(3) Furthermore, drug levels may not necessarily correlate with biological activity of the drug. Consequently, it may be beneficial to consider modification of the immunosuppression regimen based on the patient's level of functional immune competence.

This assay provides a means to evaluate overimmunosuppression within the CD8 T-cell compartment (global CD8 T-cell function). Intracellular IFN-gamma expression is a marker for CD8 T-cell activation. Surface CD107a and CD107b are markers for cytotoxic function. This test may be most useful when ordered at the end of induction immunosuppression and 2 to 3 months after maintenance immunosuppression to ensure that global CD8 T-cell function is not compromised. The test may also provide value when immunosuppression is increased to halt or prevent graft rejection, to provide information on a balance between overimmunosuppression with subsequent infectious comorbidities and underimmunosuppression with resultant graft rejection.

The absolute counts of lymphocyte subsets are known to be influenced by a variety of biological factors, including hormones, the environment, and temperature. The studies on diurnal (circadian) variation in lymphocyte counts have demonstrated progressive increase in CD4 T cell count throughout the day, while CD8 T cells and CD19+ B cells increase between 8:30 a.m. and noon with no change between noon and afternoon. Natural killer  cell counts, on the other hand, are constant throughout the day.(4) Circadian variations in circulating T-cell counts have been shown to be negatively correlated with plasma cortisol concentration.(5-7) In fact, cortisol and catecholamine concentrations control distribution and therefore, numbers of naive versus effector CD4 and CD8 T cells.(5) It is generally accepted that lower CD4 T cell counts are seen in the morning compared to the evening(8) and during summer compared to winter.(9) These data therefore indicate that timing and consistency in timing of blood collection is critical when serially monitoring patients for lymphocyte subsets.