Sustained anti-CD4/CD8 treatment blocks inflammatory activation and intimal thickening in mouse heart allografts

We evaluated inflammatory activation and vascular thickening in a heterotopic murine heart transplant model. C57BL/6J recipient mice received anti-CD4 therapy (days 1 to 4 after transplantation) or sustained, combined anti-CD4/CD8 therapy (days 1 to 4, weekly thereafter). Morphometric analysis of grafts (> 95 days) found the mean percentage of vessel occlusion to be 51.7% in allografts treated with anti-CD4, 8.3% in allografts treated with sustained anti-CD4/CD8, and 6.7% in isografts. Mean transcript levels of the adhesion molecules P-selectin, intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1), and leukocyte function-associated antigen 1 (LFA-1) and the cytokines interleukin 4 (IL-4), interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), allograft inflammatory factor 1 (AIF-1), and monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1) were measured with reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction [RT-PCR] assays using deoxycytidine triphosphate radiolabeled with phosphorus 32 [32P-dCTP]. The assays were normalized against glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase [G3PDH] Levels were found to be significantly higher in the anti-CD4 group than in the anti-CD4/CD8 group. A strong correlation was also found between the percentage of luminal occlusion and the expression of these markers of inflammation (r = .92-.99, P < .0001). Sustained therapy involving proximal blockade of CD4 and CD8 interrupts pathways leading to inflammation and vascular thickening. However, long-term heart allografts in mice treated with a short course of anti-CD4 display an ongoing inflammatory cell activation that culminates in arteriosclerosis. This model may help examine the role of targeted immune factors using knockout mice to identify those causally involved in vessel thickening.