Gene expression profile analysis of the peripheral blood mononuclear cells from tolerant living-donor liver transplant recipients

Induction of transplant tolerance is a clinically desirable goal. To provide unbiased insight into transplant tolerance, we analyzed gene expression profiling in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from recipients of living-donor liver transplants (LDLTs) who had retained an immune tolerance with a well-functioning graft for several years using cDNA microarray. The comparative analyses with nontransplanted normal healthy volunteers showed that the majority of reliable detected genes were similar, and 5.6% of the genes in the tested genome (of which 627 up-regulated and 90 down-regulated) were significantly regulated and specific to tolerant LDLT recipients, indicating a significant genetic feature for inducing and maintaining immune tolerance. Moreover, the expression of several selected genes was confirmed by semiquantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction, which correlated to microarray data. Our data indicated that cDNA microarray technology was useful for this application and provided many informative insights into transplant tolerance mechanism.