Allograft Inflammatory Factor-1 Expression Correlates With Cardiac Rejection and Development of Cardiac Allograft Vasculopathy

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Abstract
Background— Standard morphological features of endomyocardial biopsy specimens do not necessarily correlate with the efficacy of immunotherapy or development of cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV). We hypothesized that expression of allograft inflammatory factor-1 (AIF-1), a cytokine-inducible, calcium-binding protein associated with vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation, would be associated with allograft rejection and development of CAV. Methods and Results— A total of 157 endomyocardial biopsy specimens from 26 patients with heart transplants were examined for expression of AIF-1 mRNA by semiquantitative reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction. A significant relation was found between the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation rejection grade and expression of AIF-1 ( P P P Conclusions— Expression of AIF-1 in cardiac allografts correlates with rejection, and the amount of AIF-1 expressed correlates with the severity of rejection. AIF-1 is expressed in coronary arteries with CAV, and persistent expression of AIF-1 in the cardiac allograft is associated with development of CAV.

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