title: BATF inhibition prevent acute allograft rejection after cardiac transplantation.
abstract: Acute allograft rejection is a serious and life-threatening complication of organ transplantation. Th17 cells induced inflammation has been described to play an important role in allograft rejection. Since there is a plenty of evidence indicating that transcriptional factor BATF regulates the differentiation of Th17 and follicular T helper cells both in vitro and in vivo, we investigated whether is BATF involved in acute rejection and allograft survival by injecting lentivirus containing BATF shRNA through tail vein before the cardiac transplantation operation. We found that the allograft survival time of the mice treated with BATF shRNA was significantly prolonged compared with that of negative shRNA treated group and the control group. Further pathological analysis revealed that the BATF shRNA treatment group had significantly lower rejection degree than the negative shRNA group, while there was no significant difference between the negative shRNA group and the control group. Furthermore, flow cytometry analysis and quantitative polymerase chain reaction and enzyme-linked immuno sorbent assay were used to determine the proportion of T helper cells, the expression of specific transcription factor and the inflammatory cytokines respectively. Data showed that BATF regulated Th17 and Treg responses during allograft rejection. And BATF inhibition led to reduction of the expression level of Rorγ-t and enhancement of the Foxp-3. In addition, cytokines IL-17A and IL-4 were found decreased. This may indicate BATF as a novel therapy target for treatment of acute allograft rejection.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Organ Transplantation, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and TechnologyWuhan, China; Key Laboratory of Ministry of Health and Key Laboratory of Ministry of EducationWuhan, China.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Nephrology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Fan
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Institute of Organ Transplantation, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and TechnologyWuhan, China; Key Laboratory of Ministry of Health and Key Laboratory of Ministry of EducationWuhan, China.
authors.forename: Chen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.affiliation: Institute of Organ Transplantation, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and TechnologyWuhan, China; Key Laboratory of Ministry of Health and Key Laboratory of Ministry of EducationWuhan, China.
authors.forename: Rumeng
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.affiliation: Institute of Organ Transplantation, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and TechnologyWuhan, China; Key Laboratory of Ministry of Health and Key Laboratory of Ministry of EducationWuhan, China.
authors.forename: Dongxia
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Institute of Organ Transplantation, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and TechnologyWuhan, China; Key Laboratory of Ministry of Health and Key Laboratory of Ministry of EducationWuhan, China.
authors.forename: Zhimin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Organ Transplantation, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and TechnologyWuhan, China; Key Laboratory of Ministry of Health and Key Laboratory of Ministry of EducationWuhan, China.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Organ Transplantation, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and TechnologyWuhan, China; Key Laboratory of Ministry of Health and Key Laboratory of Ministry of EducationWuhan, China.
authors.forename: Jincheng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: Institute of Organ Transplantation, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and TechnologyWuhan, China; Key Laboratory of Ministry of Health and Key Laboratory of Ministry of EducationWuhan, China.
authors.forename: Lai
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Davis Heart and Lung Research Institute, The Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio, United States of America.
authors.forename: Hua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Organ Transplantation, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and TechnologyWuhan, China; Key Laboratory of Ministry of Health and Key Laboratory of Ministry of EducationWuhan, China.
authors.forename: Zhishui
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
keywords: Acute allograft rejection; BATF; Th17; heterotopic cardiac transplantation; lentiviral vectors; shRNA