This project is designed to be a systematic assessment of major factors that contribute to the pathogenesis of cardiac transplant arteriopathy. The investigators will employ an experimental system of our design in which mouse hearts, transplanted between defined strains, develop advanced obstructive coronary atherosclerotic lesions while the remainder of the heart is relatively free of rejection activity. They have shown that coronary lesions can be the result of cellular or humoral immune responses in isolation from one another. They will now determine the relative importance of the """"""""direct"""""""" and """"""""indirect"""""""" pathways of cellular activation in causing this process by employing newly created """"""""knockout"""""""" mice in which these pathways can be isolated. The investigators will also establish the relative importance of Th1 versus Th2 cell activation systems and will seek to influence the predominance of one or the other by appropriate cytokine treatment. The mechanism by which humoral immunity incites lesion formation will be pursued using fractions of an antiserum known to produce arteriopathy on transfer to scid recipients bearing surviving heart transplants. The involvement of complement in this process will also be ascertained and the potential for blocking the development of vascular lesions by inactivating certain cell adhesion processes, such as ICAM 1/LFA 1, VCAM 1/VLA 4, and fibronectin systems, will be explored. The potential for the late appearance of coronary lesions after a transplanted heart has been fully protected for an extended period by profound immunosuppression and the susceptibility of lesions to reversal at various times after transplantation will also be investigated. The possibility that """"""""organ specific"""""""" antigens contribute to the immune events that lead to arteriopathy will be approached using recipients fully tolerant of donor- specific histocompatibility antigens delivered on spleen cells by neonatal injection. The results derived from these studies are expected to suggest fruitful approaches to the control of the important process of transplant arteriopathy.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01HL043340-07
Application #
2392658
Study Section
Surgery, Anesthesiology and Trauma Study Section (SAT)
Project Start
1989-07-01
Project End
2001-03-31
Budget Start
1997-04-01
Budget End
1998-03-31
Support Year
7
Fiscal Year
1997
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Massachusetts General Hospital
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Boston
State
MA
Country
United States
Zip Code
02199
Cariappa, Annaiah; Chase, Catharine; Liu, Haoyuan et al. (2007) Naive recirculating B cells mature simultaneously in the spleen and bone marrow. Blood 109:2339-45
Cariappa, Annaiah; Mazo, Irina B; Chase, Catharine et al. (2005) Perisinusoidal B cells in the bone marrow participate in T-independent responses to blood-borne microbes. Immunity 23:397-407
Yamada, Akira; Laufer, Terri M; Gerth, Andrea J et al. (2003) Further analysis of the T-cell subsets and pathways of murine cardiac allograft rejection. Am J Transplant 3:23-7
Russell, P S; Chase, C M; Sykes, M et al. (2001) Tolerance, mixed chimerism, and chronic transplant arteriopathy. J Immunol 167:5731-40
Russell, P S; Chase, C M; Colvin, R B (1997) Alloantibody- and T cell-mediated immunity in the pathogenesis of transplant arteriosclerosis: lack of progression to sclerotic lesions in B cell-deficient mice. Transplantation 64:1531-6
Russell, P S; Chase, C M; Colvin, R B (1997) Contributions of cellular and humoral immunity to arteriopathic lesions in transplanted mouse hearts. Transplant Proc 29:2527-8
Russell, P S; Chase, C M; Colvin, R B (1996) Accelerated atheromatous lesions in mouse hearts transplanted to apolipoprotein-E-deficient recipients. Am J Pathol 149:91-9
Russell, P S; Chase, C M; Colvin, R B (1995) Coronary atherosclerosis in transplanted mouse hearts. IV Effects of treatment with monoclonal antibodies to intercellular adhesion molecule-1 and leukocyte function-associated antigen-1. Transplantation 60:724-9
Russell, P S; Chase, C M; Winn, H J et al. (1994) Coronary atherosclerosis in transplanted mouse hearts. III. Effects of recipient treatment with a monoclonal antibody to interferon-gamma. Transplantation 57:1367-71
Russell, P S; Chase, C M; Winn, H J et al. (1994) Coronary atherosclerosis in transplanted mouse hearts. I. Time course and immunogenetic and immunopathological considerations. Am J Pathol 144:260-74

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