Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med., Vol 150, No. 4, 10 1994, 1137-1141.
Pathogenesis of late airway changes in long-term surviving lung allografts
S Sakiyama, T Uyama, N Tanida, T Fukumoto, H Nagasawa, K Himeno and Y Monden
Second Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, University of Tokushima, Japan.
Late airway changes are frequently observed in long-term surviving rat lung
allografts. In this present study, we investigate this problem using the
mixed lymphocyte reaction, graft-versus-host assay (popliteal lymph node
assay), skin grafting from the donor strain to the lung allograft
recipient, and histology to evaluate this problem. The results show that
spleen cells from recipient rats with long-term surviving lung allografts
possessed alloreactivity in mixed lymphocyte reaction against both donor
and third-party ACI antigens. Suppressor cell activity was not detected in
spleen cells from these recipient rats. The popliteal lymph node assay
showed that the response to recipient spleen cells was detectable but
weaker than that of naive spleen cells from the same strain. Mean survival
time of skin grafts from the donor strain to long-term allograft survivors
was significantly longer than that between donor and recipient strains.
Chest roentgenograms revealed opacification of long-term surviving lung
allografts at 2 to 3 wk after skin transplantation that was coincident with
the rejection of the skin grafts, and histologic examination of the lung
allografts revealed changes compatible with acute rejection. We conclude
that alloreactivity can be demonstrated in rats with long- term surviving
lung allografts and suggest that late airway changes in these lungs are
immunologically mediated.
