Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 6, 2026
Mouse Models for Graft Arteriosclerosis
Published on: May 14, 2013
Graft-infiltrating dendritic cells and coronary endothelial dysfunction after human heart transplantation
Sieglinde Kofler1, Paraskevi Petrakopoulou, Cornelia Grimm
1Medizinische Klinik und Poliklinik I, University Medical Center Munich-Grosshadern, Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
Background:
Indirect allorecognition is involved in chronic transplant rejection. We prospectively characterized graft-infiltrating dendritic cells (DCs) in sequential myocardial biopsies (n = 64; 1 to 24 months after transplantation) from 16 patients after heart transplantation (HTx) and analyzed the relation between graft immune activation and structural and functional coronary changes during follow-up.
Methods:
DC invasion (immunostaining) in the human myocardium was detectable early after HTx, increased further during the first year, and decreased constantly thereafter. Also, graft-infiltrating DCs expressed markers of immaturity and maturity and were time-dependently clustered with CD3-positive T cells.
Results:
Both epicardial and microvascular endothelial dysfunction were associated with elevated CD209-positive DCs at 12 months. CD209 positivity early after HTx was an independent marker for coronary endothelial dysfunction during follow-up. Intimal hyperplasia or angiographic disease during follow-up was not associated with myocardial DC infiltration.
Conclusions:
DCs frequently infiltrate the cardiac allograft with a peak during the first post-operative year and time-dependently cluster with T cells. Migratory active graft-infiltrating DCs may serve as a predictor for allograft coronary endothelial dysfunction.
