Human T cells infiltrate and injure pig coronary artery grafts with activated but not quiescent endothelium in immunodeficient mouse hosts.

BACKGROUND: We have previously demonstrated that human artery grafts transplanted to immunodeficient mice are infiltrated and injured by unsensitized allogeneic human T cells. We extended our investigations to human anti-porcine xenoresponses in this model. METHODS: Pig coronary artery segments were interposed into the infrarenal aorta of severe combined immunodeficiency/beige mice. After 7 days, certain recipients were reconstituted with human leukocytes and/or treated with proinflammatory cytokines. The grafts were harvested after 1-70 days and examined by histology, immunohistochemistry, and morphometry. RESULTS: Pig artery grafts from untreated mice had no evidence of injury, leukocytic infiltrate, or endothelial cell activation up to 70 days postoperatively, despite deposition of murine complement. Host reconstitution with human peripheral blood mononuclear cells resulted in a discrete population of circulating T cells that did not infiltrate or injure the grafts up to 28 days after adoptive transfer. Administration of porcine interferon-gamma for up to 28 days sustained the expression of graft vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 and major histocompatibility complex antigens, but did not initiate recruitment of human leukocytes. In contrast, treatment with human tumor necrosis factor for 7 days induced the de novo expression of porcine E-selectin by graft endothelial cells and elicited human T cell infiltration and human peripheral blood mononuclear cell-dependent vascular injury. CONCLUSIONS: The human peripheral blood mononuclear cell-severe combined immunodeficiency/beige mouse model identifies a significant difference between human T cell allogeneic and xenogeneic responses in vivo. Xenografts with quiescent endothelium are not infiltrated or injured by T cells under the same conditions in which allografts are rejected. Activation of pig coronary artery endothelial cells by human tumor necrosis factor, but not porcine interferon-gamma, elicits cellular xenoresponses.

Acute modulation of endothelial Akt/PKB activity alters nitric oxide-dependent vasomotor activity in vivo.

The serine/threonine protein kinase Akt (protein kinase B) phosphorylates endothelial cell nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) and enhances its ability to generate nitric oxide (NO). Because NO is an important regulator of vasomotor tone, we investigated whether Akt can regulate endothelium-dependent vasomotion in vivo using a rabbit femoral artery model of gene transfer. The endothelium of isolated femoral arteries was infected with replication-defective adenoviral constructs expressing beta-galactosidase, constitutively-active Akt (myr-Akt), or dominant-negative Akt (dn-Akt). Femoral arteries transduced with myr-Akt showed a significant increase in resting diameter and blood flow, as assessed by angiography and Doppler flow measurements, respectively. L-NAME, an eNOS inhibitor, blocked myr-Akt-mediated vasodilatation. In contrast, endothelium-dependent vasodilatation in response to acetylcholine was attenuated in vessels transduced with dn-Akt, although these vessels showed normal responses to nitroglycerin, an endothelium-independent vasodilator. Similarly, relaxation of murine aorta ex vivo in response to acetylcholine, but not nitroglycerin, was inhibited by transduction of dn-Akt to the endothelium. These data provide evidence that Akt functions as key regulator of vasomotor tone in vivo.

Nitric oxide synthase inhibitors attenuate transforming-growth-factor-beta 1-stimulated capillary organization in vitro.

Angiogenesis is a complex process involving endothelial cell (EC) proliferation, migration, differentiation, and organization into patent capillary networks. Nitric oxide (NO), an EC mediator, has been reported to be antigenic as well as proangiogenic in different models of in vivo angiogenesis. Our aim was to investigate the role of NO in capillary organization using rat microvascular ECs (RFCs) grown in three-dimensional (3D) collagen gels. RFCs placed in 3D cultures exhibited extensive tube formation in the presence of transforming growth factor-beta 1. Addition of the NO synthase (NOS) inhibitors L-nitro-arginine methylester (L-NAME, 1 mmol/L) or L-monomethyl-nitro-l-arginine (1 mmol/L) inhibited tube formation and the accumulation of nitrite in the media by approximately 50%. Incubation of the 3D cultures with excess L-arginine reversed the inhibitory effect of L-NAME on tube formation. In contrast to the results obtained in 3D cultures, inhibition of NO synthesis by L-NAME did not influence RFC proliferation in two-dimensional (2D) cultures or antagonize the ability of transforming growth factor-beta 1 to suppress EC proliferation in 2D cultures. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction revealed the constitutive expression of all three NOS isoforms, neuronal, inducible, and endothelial NOSs, in 2D and 3D cultures. Moreover, Western blot analysis demonstrated the presence of immunoreactive protein for all NOS isoforms in 3D cultures of RFCs. In addition, in the face of NOS blockade, co-treatment with the NO donor sodium nitroprusside or the stable analog of cGMP, 8-bromo-cGMP, restored capillary tube formation. Thus, the autocrine production of NO and the activation of soluble guanylate cyclase are necessary events in the process of differentiation and in vitro capillary tube organization of RFCs.