title: SPECT/CT lymphoscintigraphy of heterotopic cardiac grafts reveals novel sites of lymphatic drainage and T cell priming.
abstract: The normal function of lymphatic vessels is to facilitate the trafficking of antigen presenting cells to draining lymph nodes where they evoke an immune response. Donor lymphatic vessels are not connected to that of recipients' during organ transplantation. The pathophysiology of this disruption has received little attention. Murine heterotopic cardiac transplantation has been used extensively in transplantation research. Following vascularized organ transplantation, the main site of allosensitization is thought to be in the spleen of the recipient as a result of migration of donor passenger leukocytes via blood. Here, using Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography/Computerized Tomography (SPECT/CT) lymphoscintigraphy, we studied the pattern of lymphatic flow from mouse heterotopic abdominal cardiac grafts and identified mediastinal lymph nodes as the draining nodes for the donor graft. Staining with HY tetramer after transplantation of HY mismatched heart grafts and ELISPOT following allogeneic grafts to detect donor specific T cells revealed them as important sites for allosensitization. Our data indicates that mediastinal lymph nodes play a crucial role in the alloimmune response in this model, and should be used for ex vivo and adoptive transfer studies after transplantation in addition to the spleen.
authors.affiliation: MRC Centre for Transplantation, King's College London, School of Medicine at Guy's, King's and St. Thomas' Hospitals, London, UK.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Badar
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sunassee
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Fernandes
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shariff
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jurcevic
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Blower
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Sacks
authors.forename: G E D
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Mullen
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wong
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D016027:Heart Transplantation / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000276:immunology / Q000502:physiology; D007519:Isoantigens / Q000378:metabolism; D008196:Lymph / Q000502:physiology; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000276:immunology / Q000502:physiology; D008208:Lymphatic System / Q000502:physiology; D008220:Lymphography / Q000379:methods; D061305:Lymphoscintigraphy; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008808:Mice, Inbred CBA; D008811:Mice, Inbred DBA; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D014019:Tissue Donors; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D016042:Transplantation, Heterotopic
chemical_list: D007519:Isoantigens