SURVIVAL OF MHC-DEFICIENT MOUSE HETEROTOPIC CARDIAC ALLOGRAFTS

Citation
L. Campos et al., SURVIVAL OF MHC-DEFICIENT MOUSE HETEROTOPIC CARDIAC ALLOGRAFTS, Transplantation, 59(2), 1995, pp. 187-191
Citations number
38
Categorie Soggetti
Immunology,Surgery,Transplantation
Journal title
ISSN journal
00411337
Volume
59
Issue
2
Year of publication
1995
Pages
187 - 191
Database
ISI
SICI code
0041-1337(1995)59:2<187:SOMMHC>2.0.ZU;2-I
Abstract
The immunologic mechanisms involved in the destruction of murine cardi ac allografts were evaluated using MHC-deficient mice. Specifically, w e examined the survival of immediately vascularized heterotopic adult cardiac grafts deficient in MHC class I, MHC class II, or both MHC cla ss I and II antigens following transplantation to allogeneic hosts. We observed indefinite cardiac graft survival when donors lacked MHC cla ss II or both MHC I and II antigens. In parallel experiments, we studi ed the survival of cardiac grafts harvested from normal donors in reci pients severely depleted of either CD4 (class II-deficient mice) or CD 8 (class I-deficient mice) T cells. Craft survival was dramatically pr olonged in the absence of CD4 but not CD8 T cells. Collectively, our r esults demonstrate that the interaction of host CD4 T cells with donor class II antigens is critical to the rejection of murine cardiac graf ts.