The Expression Of IP-10 And TARC Chemokines In Human Liver Allograft Acute Rejection

Although chemokines were studied in many regions popularly in recent years, but their functions in acute rejection of allograft are not known very clearly. Chemokines can be defined as Th1 and Th2 type according to their expression on which type of T cell. Interferon gamma inducible protein (IP-10) is a Thl type chemokine. Its receptor CXCR3 can express on Thl cell surface and recruit activated Thl cell selectively. The Thymus and Activation-Regulated Chemokine(TARC) is a Th2 type chemokines because its receptor CCR4 can express on Th2 cell.We studied all suspicious acute rejection patients who were performed orthotopic liver transplantation in the transplant department of Tianjin 1^st Central Hospital from January to August 2004. In these patients, mal-condition donor, dysfunction donor, retransplantation, bleeding and infection complication were excluded. 36 patients (26 males, 10 females) are average age at 48.8 years(17⁶3years). According to Banff grade, we divided all patients into no rejection group, mild rejection group, medium rejection group and severe rejection group. The IP-10, TARC and their receptors levels of every group in allograft tissue were tested by using RT-PCR semi-quantitative analysis. The results show that IP-10 and CXCR3 expressed more significantly along with the degree of acute rejection severity, whereas TARC and CCR4 show a reverse trend. Similar results can be observed in periphery blood of all patients when we tested IP-10 and TARC at four different time spots (3days, 2days,1day and Oday before puncture) by ELISA method. We also find that IP-10 level performed an ascend trend at four continuous assay time spots, whereas TARC did not show a distinct trend. So we studied TARC/IP-10 ratio (Th2/Th1 ratio) from above results. All ratios show high significantly after transplant vs pre-transplant. The ratios in mild rejection group performed a stable trend, but severe rejection group...