CD4+ T cell recognition of a single discordant HLA-A2-transgenic molecule through the indirect antigen presentation pathway induces acute rejection of murine cardiac allografts

Craig R. Smith, Andrés Jaramillo, Wei Liu, Yizheng Tu, Zahid Kaleem, Carol J. Swanson, T. Mohanakumar

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

To further define the role of indirect allorecognition, cardiac allografts from HLA-A2-transgenic (HLA-A2+) C57BL/6 mice were heterotopically transplanted into normal C57BL/6, CD4 T cell-knockout (KO) C57BL/6 mice, CD8 T cell-KO C57BL/6 mice, fully MHC-discordant BALB/c mice (allogeneic control), and HLA-A2+ C57BL/6 mice (syngeneic control). HLA-A2+ grafts were acutely rejected when transplanted into BALB/c mice (mean survival time: 10±0.8 days), normal C57BL/6 mice (mean survival time: 16.5±2.1 days) as well as CD8-KO mice (mean survival time: 12.8±1.3 days). Histopathological analysis revealed classical acute cellular rejection with moderate to severe diffuse interstitial CD4+ and CD8+ cellular infiltrates and significant intra-graft deposition of IgG and complement. In contrast, HLA-A2+ grafts were not rejected when transplanted into CD4-KO mice or HLA-A2+ mice. CD8-KO recipients treated with an anti-CD4 monoclonal antibody, but not with an anti-NK monoclonal antibody, failed to reject their allografts with prolonged administration of antibody (30 days). Spleen cells from mice rejecting HLA-A2+ allografts failed to lyse HLA-A2+ target cells indicating a lack of involvement of CD8+ T cells in the rejection process. In contrast, spleen cells from rejecting animals prolifferated significantly to both HLA-A2+ cells and to a peptide derived from the HLA-A2 molecule. Development of anti-HLA-A2 antibodies was observed in all animals rejecting HLA-A2+ allografts. These results suggest that indirect allorecognition of donor MHC class I molecules leads to rejection of cardiac allografts and development of alloantibodies in this unique transplant model in which there is a single MHC discordance between donor and recipient.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1640-1648
Number of pages9
JournalTransplantation
Volume71
Issue number11
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 15 2001

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