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Background: After lung transplantation, mononuclear cells including T cells may play a role in the development of BOS. To investigate whether the mononuclear cell composition or specific T cell subsets in peripheral blood of patients with and without BOS are different, a cross sectional study was performed on blood taken 5 months after lung transplantation.

Methods: PBMC samples of 11 patients with BOS, 39 patients without BOS and 8 healthy controls were analyzed by FACS for monocytes, B-, NK-, NKT-and T cells as well as CD4+ and CD8+ naïve, central memory, effector memory and terminally differentiated effector T cells. Patients were treated with a tacrolimus/mycophenolate-mofetil based regimen. Results: Between lung transplant recipients and healthy controls no differences were found in percentage of circulating monocytes, T cells, B cells, NK cells or NKT cells. However, central memory CD4+ T cells were decreased (p= 0.04) and terminally differentiated effector CD4+ T cells were increased (p= 0.05) in the patients remaining free from BOS compared to healthy controls. NKT cells were increased and central memory CD8+ T cells were decreased in patients developing BOS versus those remaining BOS-free (p= 0.002 and p= 0.02 respectively). Central memory CD8+ T cells were also decreased in patients developing BOS compared to healthy controls (p= 0.02). The difference in NKT cells was not predictive of BOS while for central memory CD8+ T cells a trend was found (p= 0.09). Conclusion: Differences in mononuclear cell compositions are found between healthy controls and patients who underwent lung transplantation. Some T …