Organ Transplantation Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Organ Transplantation, including details on risks, prognosis, procedure, surgery.

Growth factor-induced mobilization of dendritic cells in kidney and liver of rhesus macaques: implications for transplantation.

Morelli AE, Coates PT, Shufesky WJ, Barratt-Boyes SM, Fung JJ, Demetris AJ, Thomson AW

Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.

Hematopoietic growth factors (HGF) mobilize potential tolerogenic cells in transplant donors. Fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 ligand (Flt3L) mobilizes stem cells and dendritic cells (DCs) in human and nonhuman primate blood. Blood and renal and liver biopsies were obtained from untreated and Flt3L-mobilized rhesus macaques. Flt3L increased the number of myeloid CD11c(hi) and plasmacytoid CD123(hi) precursors in blood and both myeloid CD11c(+) HLA-DR(+) fascin(+) (CD45RA(-)) DCs and putative plasmacytoid CD11c(lo) CD45RA(hi) DC precursors in liver and kidneys, without affecting organ function. DC in Flt3L-treated monkeys were concentrated in the glomeruli and interstitium of kidneys, and in the portal triads and parenchyma of liver. These DCs exhibited the phenotype of immature antigen-presenting cells (APCs; CD83(-) CD86(lo) CCR5(+) CCR7(-)). HGF-induced changes reversed significantly within 7 days of Flt3L withdrawal. Therapeutic protocols that mobilize donor hematopoietic cells should consider the influence of HGF on the APC constituency of prospective organ allografts.

Published 13 March 2007 in Transplantation, 83(5): 656-62.
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