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(Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. 2008;28:1937.)
© 2008 American Heart Association, Inc.

Brief Reviews

The Role of Chemokines in Transplant Graft Arterial Disease

Koichi Shimizu; Richard N. Mitchell

From the Cardiovascular Division, Department of Medicine (K.S.), and Department of Pathology (R.N.M.), Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass.

Correspondence to Richard N. Mitchell, MD, PhD, Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur, NRB7, Boston, MA 02115. E-mail rmitchell{at}rics.bwh.harvard.edu

Series Editor: Christian Weber
ATVB In Focus

Chemokines in Atherosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology

Despite the development of effective immunosuppressive therapy, transplant graft arterial disease (GAD) remains the major limitation to long-term graft survival. Multiple immune and nonimmune risk factors contribute to this vasculopathic intimal hyperplastic process. Thus, initial interplay between host inflammatory cells and donor endothelial cells triggers alloimmune responses, whereas alloantigen-independent factors such as prolonged ischemia, surgical manipulation, ischemia-reperfusion injury, and hyperlipidemia enhance the antigen-dependent events. Intrinsic to all stages of this process are chemokines, a family of 8- to 10-kDa proteins mediating directional migration of immune cells to sites of inflammation and injury. Beyond their role in immune-cell chemotaxis, chemokines also contribute to cellular activation, vascular remodeling, and angiogenesis. Expression of chemokines and their cognate receptors in allografts correlates with acute organ rejection, as well as GAD. Moreover, chemokine or chemokine receptor blockade prolongs graft survival and attenuates GAD in experimental models. Further studies will likely confirm a substantial utility for antichemokine therapy in human organ transplantation.

Key Words: atherosclerosis pathophysiology • other arteriosclerosis • transplantation • vascular biology, smooth muscle proliferation and differentiation

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