Augmentation of interleukin-10 in pancreatic islets after brain death.
Clinical islet transplantation is now established as a treatment for patients with type I diabetes. Although organs from brain-dead (BD) donors are the main source for clinical transplantation, marginal status after BD produces deterioration of the organs followed by molecular activation. The effect of brain-death (BD) induction on the immunological status of donor islets was investigated using a rodent model of BD. BD animals showed decreased levels of peripheral white blood cells (WBC) compared to controls, indicating the extravasation of these cells (7270 +/- 500 vs 9570 +/- 370, respectively). In a densitometric study of RT-PCR products, the Th2 cytokine (IL-10) was significantly up-regulated in BD (2.91 +/- 0.26 vs 1.76 +/- 0.40), but a Th1 cytokine (IL-2) showed minimal change. Increased expression of IL-10 may inhibit macrophage function. As the marginal status after BD deteriorates, the islets of these donors may display early graft loss or poor long-term function. Integrative studies of immunomodulation might be necessary to eliminate islet infiltrates.
Takada
M
M
Department of Gastroenterological Surgery, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kobe University, Kobe, Japan. moriatsu@med.kobe-u.ac.jp
Toyama
H
H
Tanaka
T
T
Suzuki
Y
Y
Kuroda
Y
Y
D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D001926:Brain Death; D017931:DNA Primers; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000276:immunology; D016753:Interleukin-10 / Q000235:genetics*; D007515:Islets of Langerhans / Q000276:immunology*; D007958:Leukocyte Count; D008297:Male; D023421:Models, Animal; D051381:Rats; D011917:Rats, Inbred Lew; D012016:Reference Values; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
D017931:DNA Primers; D016753:Interleukin-10