October 28, 2024, Immune Tolerance
After decades of advancement, kidney transplantation has become a highly mature treatment for uremia. The management of various complications now includes more appropriate treatment strategies. For instance, rejection, a major concern for patients, can typically be reversed with timely intervention. However, antibody-mediated rejection, particularly chronic antibody-mediated rejection, remains a primary obstacle to the long-term survival of kidney allografts.
Follicular T regulatory cells can effectively regulate the human immune system, but its function and mechanism are still unclear. Recent studies have shown that the proportion of follicular t regulatory cells is closely related to chronic antibody-mediated rejection in renal transplantation. Eighty-eight renal transplant patients were included in the study, of whom 40 had antibody-mediated rejection and 48 had no antibody-mediated rejection. The percentage of follicular T regulatory cells in graft tissue and peripheral blood was significantly lower in the antibody-mediated rejection group than in the non-antibody-mediated rejection group. The proportion of fFollicular T regulatory cells can effectively modulate the human immune system, but their functions and mechanisms remain poorly understood. Recent studies have demonstrated that the proportion of follicular T regulatory cells is closely associated with chronic antibody-mediated rejection in kidney transplantation. The study included 88 kidney transplant patients, of whom 40 had antibody-mediated rejection and 48 did not. The proportion of follicular T regulatory cells in graft tissue and peripheral blood was significantly lower in the antibody-mediated rejection group compared to the non-antibody-mediated rejection group. The proportion of follicular T helper cells producing IL-21 was significantly elevated.
Functional assays revealed that follicular T regulatory cells can suppress immune function, significantly reducing IL-21 secretion by follicular T helper cells and further inhibiting the proliferation and differentiation of B cells. Blocking CTLA-4, neutralizing IL-10, and inhibiting TGF-β diminished this effect. The study also demonstrated that sirolimus reduced the proportion of follicular T regulatory cells, whereas cyclosporine and tacrolimus had no significant impact.
Although research on follicular T regulatory cells remains in its early stages, with further mechanisms requiring in-depth exploration, the growing focus on antibody-mediated rejection has spurred increasing studies in this area. It is believed that, in the near future, kidney allograft dysfunction caused by antibody-mediated rejection could be fundamentally transformed.
Written by | Zhu Dong, Edited by | Zhu Dong, Photography | G.T.
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