title: Intrathymic inoculation of donor liver specific antigen alleviates rejection of liver allotransplantation.
abstract: Use and effects of liver specific antigen in orthotopic liver transplantations were researched in this study. Group I: syngeneic control (Wistar-to-Wistar); Group II: acute rejection (SD-to-Wistar); Group III: Thymic inoculation of SD rat LSA day 7 before transplantation. The observation of common situation and survival time, rejection grades, NF-KappaB activity of splenocytes and IL-2mRNA expression of grafted liver were used to analyze acute rejection severity and immune state of animals in different groups. The common situation of group I was very well after transplantation and no signs of rejection were found. Recipients of group II lost body weight progressively. All dead within day 9 to day 13 posttransplantation; median survival time was 10.7+/-0.51 days. It was an optimal acute rejection control. As for group III, 5 out of 6 recipients survived for a long time and common situation was remarkably better than that of group II. Its rejection grades were significantly lower than that of group II(P < 0.05). NF-KappaB activity was only detected in group I at day 5 and day 7 after transplantation, whereas high activity of NF-KappaB was detected at all time points in group II and the low NF-KappaB activity detected in group III was significantly lower than that of group II(P < 0.05). No IL-2mRNA expression was detected at any time point in group I, whereas high level expression was detected at all time points in group II and the low level expression only detected at day 3 in group III was significantly lower than that of group II(P < 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  LSA is an important transplantation antigen which is involved directly in the immunorejection of liver transplantation. We report here for the first time that intrathymic inoculation of LSA can alleviate the rejection of liver allotransplantation; and that grafts can survive for a long time thereby, thus leading to a novel way to achieve liver transplantation immunotolerance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatobiliary Pancreatic Surgery, Key Lab of combined Multi Organ Transplantation of Ministry of Public Health, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310003, China. jiachk@sohu.com
authors.forename: Chang-Ku
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.forename: Shu-Sen
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Ai-Bin
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006084:Graft Rejection / Q000209:etiology* / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D007165:Immunosuppression Therapy / Q000379:methods; D007519:Isoantigens / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000276:immunology; D016031:Liver Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000276:immunology / Q000379:methods* / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D015996:Survival Rate; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000187:drug effects / Q000276:immunology; D014019:Tissue Donors; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D007519:Isoantigens; C030497:liver specific F antigen