Liver Transplant Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Liver Transplant, including details on risks, prognosis, procedure, surgery, organ donation.

Mast cells and c-Kit expression in liver allograft rejection.

El-Refaie AM, Burt AD

School of Clinical and Laboratory Sciences, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK.

AIMS : The pathogenesis of rejection following liver transplantation is not fully understood. It has been postulated that mast cells may play a role in acute and chronic rejection of a number of other solid organ grafts. The aim of this study was to assess the possible role of mast cells and c-Kit+ cells in acute and chronic liver allograft rejection. METHODS AND RESULTS : Biopsy specimens from (i) 'time zero' grafts with a minimal degree of perfusion injury (controls), (ii) transplanted livers with different grades of acute rejection, and (iii) transplanted livers with end-stage chronic rejection, were stained immunohistochemically using monoclonal anti-mast cell tryptase and polyclonal anti-c-Kit antibodies. Tryptase- and c-Kit-positive cell densities were assessed by image analysis. Tryptase-positive mast cell densities (P<0.001) were strongly correlated with acute liver allograft rejection grades and chronic liver allograft rejection. Furthermore, a similarly strong relationship was found between c-Kit+ cell densities and increasing rejection grade (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS : Tryptase- and c-Kit-positive mast cells form part of the inflammatory infiltrate in both acute and chronic liver allograft rejection, and may be important effector cells in these processes.

Published 23 September 2005 in Histopathology, 47(4): 375-81.
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