title: AKT1 leader gene and downstream targets are involved in a rat model of kidney allograft tolerance.
abstract: Tolerance is the so-called "Holy Grail" of transplantation but achieving this state is proving a major challenge, particularly in the clinical settings. This tolerance state can be induced in rodent models using a variety of maneuvers. This phenomenon is classically characterized by donor specificity (recipients accept a secondary donor-specific allograft but reject third-party allograft) as well as by the absence of chronic rejection lesion. We previously showed that administration and anti-donor anti-class II serum on the day of transplantation induce tolerance to a kidney allograft in the LEW-1W to LEW-1A strain combination. In this study, we used DNA microarrays to compare gene patterns involved in anti-donor anti-class II tolerated or untreated syngeneic kidney transplants in this strain combination. Statistical and non-statistical analyses were combined with ab initio analysis, using the recently developed leader gene approach, to shed new light on this phenomenon. Theoretical and experimental results suggest that tolerance and rejection outcome may be in large part determined by low expression variations of some genes, which can form a core gene network around specific genes such as Rac1, NFKB1, RelA, AKT1, IKBKB, BCL2, BCLX, and CHUK. Through this model, we showed that AKT1 gene, WNT pathway and NO synthesis are strictly connected to each other and may play an important role in kidney tolerance and rejection processes, with AKT1 gene being the center of this complex network of interactions.
authors.affiliation: Institut National de la Santé Et de la Recherche Médicale INSERM U643, Institut de Transplantation et de Recherche en Transplantation ITERT, Nantes F-44093, France.
authors.forename: Vojislav
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Jovanovic
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Giacomelli
authors.forename: Victor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Sivozhelezov
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Degauque
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lair
authors.forename: Jean-Paul
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Soulillou
authors.forename: Eugenia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pechkova
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nicolini
authors.forename: Sophie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Brouard
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D053263:Gene Regulatory Networks; D000949:Histocompatibility Antigens Class II / Q000276:immunology; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000276:immunology*; D023421:Models, Animal; D009569:Nitric Oxide / Q000378:metabolism; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D051057:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt / Q000235:genetics*; D051381:Rats; D023001:Transplantation Tolerance; D051153:Wnt Proteins / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D000949:Histocompatibility Antigens Class II; D051153:Wnt Proteins; D009569:Nitric Oxide; C494920:Akt1 protein, rat; D051057:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt