The role of chemokines and their receptors in the rejection of pig islet tissue xenografts

Michelle F. Solomon, William A. Kuziel, David A. Mann, Charmaine J. Simeonovic*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    37 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The mechanism by which inflammatory cells are recruited to pig islet tissue (proislet) xenografts was investigated by examining the intragraft mRNA expression of murine α- and β-chemokines in CBA/H mice from days 3 to 10 post-transplant. Xenograft rejection was associated with early intragraft transcript expression for monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1) (3 to 5 days), IP-10 (3 to 4 days) and macrophage inflammatory protein-1α (MIP-1α) (3 to 5 days) and subsequent expression of eotaxin (days 4 to 10), MIP-1β (days 4 and 5) and regulated on activation, normal T cell expressed and secreted (RANTES) (days 4 to 6) mRNA. This pattern was consistent with the early recruitment of macrophages (MCP-1, MIP-1α), the influx of CD4 T cells (MCP-1, MIP-1α, MIP-1β, IP-10 and RANTES) and the characteristic infiltrate of eosinophils (eotaxin and RANTES) associated with islet xenograft rejection. Inhibition of β-chemokine signaling in CCR2-/- mice (which lack the major co-receptor for MCP-1) resulted in retarded macrophage and CD4 T cell recruitment, enhanced eosinophil influx and a minor delay in rejection, compared with wildtype mice; there was little effect on leukocyte infiltration in xenografts harvested from CCR5-/- mice (lacking the co-receptor for MIP-1α, MIP-1β and RANTES). The impeded migration of leukocytes into xenografts in CCR2-/- hosts was associated with delayed intragraft expression of MCP-1 and RANTES mRNA; absence of MCP-1/CCR2-mediated signaling led to enhanced intragraft expression of MCP-1, MIP-1α and MIP-1β mRNA. These findings suggest that MCP-1 plays an important role in regulating macrophage and CD4 T cell infiltration to xenograft sites via the CCR2 signaling pathway. Additional treatment of xenografted CCR2-/- transplant recipients with anti-interleukin-(IL)-4 and anti-IL-5 mAbs further delayed xenograft rejection demonstrating the potential for combined antirejection strategies in facilitating pig islet xenotransplantation.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)164-177
    Number of pages14
    JournalXenotransplantation
    Volume10
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Mar 2003

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