Differential dynamics of donor DC and non-DC peripheral blood mononuclear cell microchimerism in lung transplantation

Abstract

Donor cell microchimerism induces tolerance in animal models and may increase graft survival in man. Since dendritic cells (DC) are critical for induction of both tolerance and alloreactivity we developed a method to quantitate microchimerism in donor DC and non-DC in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) after lung transplantation. Longitudinal analysis of donor cell microchimerism in eleven sex mismatched lung transplant recipients (LTR) up to 12 months post-transplant used Y chromosome based real-time PCR on sorted cells. Total DC or a proportion of DC subsets in PBMC did not change but there were heterogeneous and dynamic changes in microchimerism in DC and non-DC. Analysis of change..