Apoptosis in cardiac ailograft and its relation with acute rejection in rats / 中华器官移植杂志

ABSTRACT

Objectives To detemline whether apoptotic cell death is involved in rat cardiac allograft rejection and investigate the relevance of apoptosis with acute rejection and its implication.Methods Groups of Wistar rats underwent heterotopic heart transplantation from allogeneic SD or syngeneic Wistar rats.The cardiac grafts were harvested at 1,3,5,or 7 days after transplantation and underwent the detection of apoptotic cell death using in situ terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated deoxyuridine triphosphate nick end labeling(TUNEL).Histopathological rejeclion grade and apoptotic index(AI)were analyzed.Results The incidence of apoptotic cells was increased steadily over time in allografts,in contrast to syngeneic grafts.The apoptotic cells in allografts were mainly cardiac myocytes and few infiltrating lymphocytes.The AI of rejection grade 1,2,3 and 4 was significantly higher than that of rejection grade 0(P<0.01).Conclusions TUNEL can display apoptosis of single cell in situ.Apoptosis is an important mechanism of tissue injury in acute cardiac allograft rejection in rats.Myocyte apoptosis can be used as a valuable index to estimate the injury of grafts and monitor acute rejection.