title: The functional relevance of passenger leukocytes and microchimerism for heart allograft acceptance in the rat.
abstract: With an organ transplant, hematopoietic donor cells are transferred to the recipient. To study the relevance of the resulting microchimerism for allograft acceptance, we analyzed a rat model of cyclosporine-induced tolerance for strongly incompatible heart allografts. Using a monoclonal antibody that detects a donor-specific CD45 allotype (RT7a), we selectively depleted donor leukocytes at different times after transplantation (days 0 or 18). Depletion was similarly effective at both times. However, only depletion on day 0 prevented tolerance induction and was associated with severe acute or chronic graft rejection. This indicates that passenger leukocytes have an essential immunomodulatory effect on the induction phase of allograft acceptance.
authors.affiliation: Klinik für Viszeral-und Transplantationschirurgie, Medizinische Hochschule Hannover, Carl-Neuberg Strasse 1, D-30623 Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ko
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Deiwick
authors.forename: M D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Jäger
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dinkel
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rohde
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fischer
authors.forename: T Y
authors.initials: TY
authors.lastname: Tsui
authors.forename: K L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Rittmann
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wonigeit
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Schlitt
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001483:Base Sequence; D016207:Cytokines / Q000235:genetics; D017931:DNA Primers; D006085:Graft Survival / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D016027:Heart Transplantation / Q000276:immunology*; D007962:Leukocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D051381:Rats; D011917:Rats, Inbred Lew; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D018183:Transplantation Chimera; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D016207:Cytokines; D017931:DNA Primers; D012333:RNA, Messenger