Researchers in China have shown that immunizing heart-allograft-recipient mice with donor-derived peripheral exosomes, inhibits the donor antigen-specific T helper 2 (Th2)-pattern inflammation normally observed in the allograft hearts and prolongs allograft survival. In the study, peripheral exosomes were purified from the mouse serum. A heart transplantation mouse model was developed. The immune inflammation of the allograft heart was assessed by histology and flow cytometry. The results showed that donor-antigen-specific Th2-pattern inflammation was observed in the allograft hearts; the inflammation was inhibited by immunizing the recipient mice with the donor-derived exosomes. Purified peripheral exosomes contained integrin MMP1; the latter induced CD4+ T cells to express Forkhead protein-3 and transforming growth factor (TGF)-β via inhibiting the Th2 transcription factor, GATA binding protein 3, in CD4+ T cells. Administration of the donor-derived exosomes significantly prolonged the allograft heart survival. The authors concluded that the donor-derived peripheral exosomes have the capacity to inhibit the immune inflammation in the allograft heart via inducing specific Treg cells, implying that administration with the donor-derived exosomes may be beneficial to cardiac transplantation. This work is described in an open-access article published online on January 29, 2016 in Scientific Reports. The article is titled “Donor-Derived exosomes induce specific regulatory T cells to suppress immune inflammation in the allograft heart. The work was carried out by researchers at the State Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Disease, Fuwai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College.
[Scientific Reports article]
Login Or Register To Read Full Story