12th Annual International Congress of Immunology/4th Annual Conference of the Federation-of-Clinical-Immunology-Societies (FOCIS), Montreal, Kanada, 18 - 23 Temmuz 2004, ss.473-477, (Tam Metin Bildiri)
In a rat model disparate for one class I antigen RTAA(a), PVG.R8 to PVG. 1U, we previously demonstrated that intrathymic immunomodulation with donor class I allopeptides or splenocytes resulted in prolonged survival of cardiac allografts associated with chronic rejection. Prolongation correlated with the development of regulatory cells in the primary recipients that were able to prevent both acute and chronic rejection following adoptive transfer into secondary recipients. The purpose of this study was to characterize these cells with particular emphasis on CD4(+)CD25(+) T cells. Tolerant secondary graft recipients had substantially higher percentages of CD4+CD25+ T cells in the spleen and blood as compared to naive rats. CD4(+)CD25(+) T cells inhibited donor-specific proliferation responses in vitro that was associated with high levels of IL-10. These data demonstrate that cardiac allograft tolerance, generated through intrathymic immune modulation, is mediated by indirect allorecognition mediated CD4(+)CD25(+) T-REG