ニホンザル移植心における血管内皮増殖因子の発現

概要

論文の詳細を見る
Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) plays important roles in regulating angiogenesis. In chronically rejected cardiac allografts, arterial intimal thickening is formed of proliferative smooth muscle cells (SMCs) with enhanced expression of SMemb, a non-muscle myosin heavy chain isoform. However, the detailed mechanisms of the development of these lesions are almost unknown.Heterotopic cardiac transplantation was performed using Japanese monkeys;the grafts were harvested on day 28.Coronary arteries in the transplanted hearts (n＝5), recipient native hearts (n＝5) and nontransplanted hearts (n＝5) were used for pathological analysis. To evaluate VEGF and SMemb expression,we performed immunohistochemistry and the intensity was semiquantitatively scored. VEGF and SMemb reactivity was localized predominately on vascular endothelial cells and SMCs;no immunoreactivity was detected in native hearts.Using serial sections, expression of VEGF and SMemb was seen to be enhanced in the thickened intima,while this expression was diminished in native hearts.The scores of VEGF and SMemb in the vasculature of transplanted hearts were significantly different from those of native hearts (P＜0.01).These results indicate that VEGF plays a pivotal role in neointimal formation in chronic rejection, and the expression can be a useful marker for the early diagnosis of chronic rejection in cardiac allografts.
信州医学会の論文
1999-10-10