Intrathymic inoculation of liver specific antigen alleviates liver transplant rejection.
OBJECTIVE
To study the effects of liver specific antigen (LSA) on liver allotransplantation rejection.


METHODS
Orthotopic liver transplantation was performed 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 general condition and survival time, rejection grades and the NF-kappaB activity of splenocytes were used to analyze severity of acute rejection and immune state of animals in different groups.


RESULTS
The general condition of group I was fair post transplantation with no sign of rejection. All recipients of group II died within days 9 to 13 post transplantation with median survival time of 10.7 +/- 1.37 days. As for group III, 5 out of 6 recipients survived for a long period with remarkably better general condition than that of group II. Its rejection grades were significantly lower than group II (P<0.05). NF-kappaB activity was only detected in group I between days 5 and 7 after transplantation, whereas high activity of NF-kappaB was detected at all points in group II and low NF-kappaB activity was detected in group III which was significantly lower than that of group II (P<0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
LSA is an important transplantation antigen directly involved in the immunorejection of liver transplantation. Intrathymic inoculation of LSA can alleviate the rejection of liver allotransplantation, grafts survive for a period of time thereby, allowing a novel way to liver transplantation immunotolerance.
Jia
Changku
C
Department of Hepatobiliary Pancreatic Surgery, Key Lab of Combined Multi-organ Transplantation, Ministry of Public Health, First Affiliated Hospital of College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310003. jiachk@sohu.com
Zheng
Shusen
S
Zhu
Youfa
Y
D000818:Animals; D002469:Cell Separation; D006084:Graft Rejection / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D007519:Isoantigens / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008099:Liver / Q000473:pathology; D016031:Liver Transplantation; D008297:Male; D016328:NF-kappa B / Q000378:metabolism; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013154:Spleen / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000502:physiology
D007519:Isoantigens; D016328:NF-kappa B; C030497:liver specific F antigen