title: RETRACTED: Chronic cardiac allograft rejection in mice is alleviated by inhibition of CCR5 in combination with cyclosporine A.
abstract: The chemokine receptor CCR5 plays important roles in acute allograft rejection. In this study, we examined the inhibition of CCR5 in combination with the treatment with cyclosporine A (CsA) in chronic rejection in cardiac transplantation. Forty-five transplant recipients were randomized to three groups. Recipients in group A were treated with anti-CCR5 mAb and CsA, mice in group B were given anti-CCR5 mAb alone, and animals in group C were administered with only CsA. On day 45 after transplantation, the allografts were harvested and examined by immunohistologic technique and PT-PCR methods. Allografts treated with anti-CCR5 mAb and CsA showed significantly prolonged survival (44.73 ± 0.258 days, P < 0.01) as compared with CsA-treated group (37.00 ± 2.04 days). Treatment with anti-CCR5 mAb plus CsA significantly inhibited the progression of cardiac allograft vasculopathy. Our findings demonstrated that anti-CCR5 mAb in combination with CsA can prolong the survival of allograft through their cardio-protective and immunomodulative properties. Thus, combined administration of anti-CCR5 mAb and CsA may become a new therapeutic approach for the prevention of cardiac graft failure that has not been obviated by conventional immunosuppressive agents.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Kailun
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jiahong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xia