Recipients with In Utero Induction of Tolerance Upregulated MHC Class I in the Engrafted Donor Skin

الملخص EN

The alterations in MHC class I expression play a crucial step in immune evasion of cancer or virus-infected cells.

This study aimed to examine whether tolerized grafts modified MHC class I expression.

FVB/N mice were rendered tolerant of C57BL/6 alloantigens by in utero transplantation of C57BL/6 marrows.

Postnatally, engrafted donor skins and leukocytes were examined for their MHC expression by quantitative real-time PCR and flow cytometry.

Engrafted donor skins upregulated their MHC class I related gene transcripts after short-term (1~2 weeks) or long-term (>1 month) engraftment.

This biological phenomenon was simultaneously associated with upregulation of TAP1 gene transcripts, suggesting an important role of TAP1 in the regulation of MHC class I pathway.

The surface MHC class I molecules of H-2Kb in engrafted donor leukocytes consistently showed overexpression.

Conclusively, the induction of allograft tolerance involved biological modifications of donor transplants.

The overexpression of MHC class I within engrafted transplants of tolerant mice might be used as the tolerance biomarkers for identifying a state of graft tolerance.