Expression of clusterin in a rat tolerogenic OLT model

Abstract

IN RAT orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT), PVG recipients of DA livers (tolerogenic model) survive without immunosuppression and become tolerant of subsequent grafts of other DA organs such as skin, heart, and kidney. Many aspects of the mechanism regarding this naturally achieved tolerance have been discussed in our previous reports. However, the mechanism of liver allograft tolerance from the aspect of the complement system and its regulatory proteins has not yet been investigated. The complement system comprises a group of proteins that interact with other immune system molecules to provide many of the effector functions of humoral immunity and inflammation. Clusterin, which is a plasma glycoprotein, regulates the complement system by inhibiting the membrane attack complex (MAC) formation. Here, we studied the kinetics of clusterin expression after transplantation in the tolerogenic model (DA-PVG) compared with syngenic model (DA-DA) and acute rejector model (DA-LEW) by immunoblotting and Northern blotting.