Proteins of the respiratory tract after heart-lung transplantation

Heart-lung transplant recipients represent a unique population who experience episodic lung injury caused by infection or rejection. We hypothesized that the proteins in the respiratory lining fluids of these patients might reflect and provide insights into the in vivo immunologic and inflammatory events that occur in the transplanted lung. Structural, inflammatory, and immune proteins were quantitated in 57 samples of BAL fluid recovered from 17 heart-lung recipients when infections, rejection, or neither was present. Protein levels were compared with those of normal subjects and between the clinical transplant groups. When neither infection nor rejection was present, levels of albumin, fibronectin, and immunoglobulins G, M, and A were all higher in the transplanted lungs as compared with the normal lungs. These findings suggest that a new steady state of these proteins is established in the transplanted lungs. When infection or rejection was present, there was a further significant increase in albumin, fibronectin, IgG, and especially C5a in the transplanted lungs. These findings suggest that at least some elements of host defense remain intact in the posttransplantation period despite the use of immunosuppressive drugs and a HLA-incompatible microenvironment. The profiles of recovered alveolar proteins did not, however, help to differentiate infection from rejection. This is disappointing because distinguishing between infection and rejection without examination of lung tissue remains an unresolved and important clinical problem. Nevertheless these data provide new insights into organ tolerance and defense of the newly transplanted lung from infection or rejection.