Effect of Kupffer cells on immune tolerance in liver transplantation

Objective: To observe the effect of Kupffer cells on immune tolerance in liver transplantation. Methods: The rats were randomly divided into A, B and C groups. A group was sham operation group. The donor rats of group B had intraperitoneal injection of 1 nmol Kuppffer cells every other day for three days before liver transplantation. Rats of group C were injected with equal saline. The rat liver transplantation models were established by modified Kamada's two cuff technique. The rats were sacrificed after 24 hours. The concentrations of ALT and AST in serum were measured with the biochemical analyzer. the level of IL-2 and TNF- alpha in serum were measured by ELISA method. The apoptotic indexes were detected by immunohistochemical assay. Results: The concentration of ALT, AST, IL-1 and TNF- alpha in A, B and C groups were increased successively. The levels of group C were significantly higher than that of group B and A (P<0.05),and the levels of group B were significantly higher than that of group A (P<0.05). The apoptotic indexes of three groups were 3.40 +/- 0.37, 14.70 +/- 2.54 and 26.33 +/- 3.65, respectively, with significant difference among three groups (P<0.05). Conclusions: Pretreatment with Kupffer cells can reduce liver injury and raise liver transplantation immune tolerance.